usr/man/man1/kill.1

.TH KILL 1
.SH NAME
kill \- terminate a process with extreme prejudice
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B kill
[
.BR \- signo
]
processid ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Kill
sends signal 15 (terminate) to the specified processes.
If a signal number preceded by `\-' is given
as first argument, that signal is sent instead of
terminate
(see
.IR  signal (2)).
This will kill processes that do not catch the signal;
in particular `kill \-9 ...' is a sure kill.
.PP
By convention, if process number 0 is specified, all members
in the process group (i.e. processes resulting from
the current login) are signaled.
.PP
The killed processes must belong
to the current user unless
he is the super-user.
To shut the system down and bring it up single user
the super-user may
use `kill \-1 1'; see
.IR init (8).
.PP
The process number of an asynchronous process
started with `&' is reported by the shell.
Process numbers can also be found by using
.IR ps (1).
.SH "SEE ALSO"
ps(1), kill(2), signal(2)