SKILL(1)
NAME
skill, snice - send a signal or report process status
SYNOPSIS
skill [signal to send] [options] process selection criteria snice [new priority] [options] process selection criteria
DESCRIPTION
These tools are probably obsolete and unportable. The command syntax is poorly defined. Consider using the killall, pkill, and pgrep commands instead.
The default signal for skill is TERM. Use -l or -L to list available signals. Particularly useful signals include HUP, INT, KILL, STOP, CONT, and 0. Alternate signals may be specified in three ways: -9 -SIGKILL -KILL.
The default priority for snice is +4. (snice +4 ...) Priority numbers range from +20 (slowest) to -20 (fastest). Negative priority numbers are restricted to administrative users.
GENERAL OPTIONS
-f fast mode This is not currently useful.
-i interactive use You will be asked to approve each action. -v verbose output Display information about selected processes. -w warnings enabled This is not currently useful. -n no action This only displays the process ID. -V show version Displays version of program.PROCESS SELECTION OPTIONS
Selection criteria can be: terminal, user, pid, command. The options below may be used to ensure correct interpretation. Do not blame Albert for this interesting interface.
-t The next argument is a terminal (tty or pty).
-u The next argument is a username. -p The next argument is a process ID number. -c The next argument is a command name.SIGNALS
The signals listed below may be available for use with skill. When known, numbers and default behavior are shown.
Name Num Action Description 0 0 n/a exit code indicates if a signal may be sent
ALRM 14 exit HUP 1 exit INT 2 exit KILL 9 exit this signal may not be blocked PIPE 13 exit POLL exit PROF exit TERM 15 exit USR1 exit USR2 exit VTALRM exitSTKFLT exit may not be implemented
PWR ignore may exit on some systems WINCH ignore CHLD ignore URG ignore TSTP stop may interact with the shell TTIN stop may interact with the shell TTOU stop may interact with the shell STOP stop this signal may not be blocked CONT restart continue if stopped, otherwise ignore ABRT 6 core FPE 8 core ILL 4 core QUIT 3 core SEGV 11 core TRAP 5 core SYS core may not be implemented EMT core may not be implemented BUS core core dump may fail XCPU core core dump may fail XFSZ core core dump may failEXAMPLES
Command Description snice seti crack +7 Slow down seti and crack
skill -KILL -v /dev/pts/* Kill users on new-style PTY devices skill -STOP viro lm davem Stop 3 users snice -17 root bash Give priority to root's shellSEE ALSO
killall(1), pkill(1), kill(1), renice(1), nice(1), kill(2), signal(7)
STANDARDS
No standards apply.
AUTHOR
- Albert Cahalan <albert@users.sf.net> wrote skill and snice in 1999 as a replacement for a non-free version, and is the current maintainer of the procps collection. Please send bug reports to <procps-feedback@lists.sf.net>.