NAME
    kill - terminate a process

SYNOPSIS
    kill [ -s signal | -p ] [ -a ] [ -- ] pid ...
    kill -l [ signal ]

DESCRIPTION
    The command kill sends the specified signal to the specified process or
    process group. If no signal is specified, the TERM signal is  sent.
    The TERM signal will kill processes which do not catch this signal.
    For other processes, it may be necessary to use the KILL (9) signal,
    since this signal cannot be caught.

    Most modern shells have a builtin kill function, with a usage rather
    similar to that of the command described here. The `-a' and `-p'
    options, and the possibility to specify pids by command name is a local
    extension.

OPTIONS
    pid... Specify the list of processes that kill should signal. Each pid
    can be one of five things:

    n    where n is larger than 0. The process with pid n will be
     signaled.

    0    All processes in the current process group are signaled.

    -1   All processes with pid larger than 1 will be signaled.

    -n   where n is larger than 1. All processes in process group
     n are signaled. When an argument of the form `-n' is
     given, and it is meant to denote a process group, either
     the signal must be specified first, or the argument must
     be  preceded by a `--' option, otherwise it will be taken
     as the signal to send.

    commandname
     All processes invoked using that name will be signaled.

    -s signal
    Specify the signal to send. The signal may be given as a signal
    name or number.

    -l   Print  a  list  of  signal  names.  These are found in
    /usr/include/linux/signal.h

    -a   Do not restrict the commandname-to-pid conversion  to processes
    with the same uid as the present process.

    -p   Specify that kill should only print the process id (pid) of the
    named processes, and not send any signals.

SEE ALSO
    bash(1),tcsh(1), kill(2), sigvec(2), signal(7)

AUTHOR
    Taken from BSD 4.4. The ability to translate process names to process
    ids was added by Salvatore Valente <svalente@mit.edu>.