Process Control

kill

Sends a signal to a process id.

Use

kill -s <signal> <pid> send <signal> (SIGTERM if not defined) to <pid>

Useful Flags

-l display list of signals

Most Important Signals

SIGINT / 2 INTERRUPT (Same as Ctrl+c) cancel a running process
SIGKILL / 9 kills process
SIGTERM / 15 terminates a program cleanly
SIGSTOP / 17 stops a running foreground process (Same as Ctrl+z)
SIGCONT / 18 continues a stopped process

pkill

Sends a signal to a process name.

Use

pkill -s <signal> <pattern> send <signal> to all processes matching <pattern>

Useful Flags

-x, --exact process name must match exactly

killall

Almost the same as pkill.

Use

killall -s <signal> <pattern> send <signal> to all processes matching <pattern>

Useful Flags

-e, --exact process name must match exactly

pgrep

Find PID from pattern.

Use

pgrep <pattern> display process ids matching <pattern>