What does SIGKILL mean in Linux?

The SIGKILL signal is used to cause immediate program termination. It cannot be handled or ignored, and is therefore always fatal. It is also not possible to block this signal. This signal is usually generated only by explicit request.

What number is SIGKILL?

9
Default action

Signal Portable number Description
SIGHUP 1 Hangup
SIGILL 4 Illegal instruction
SIGINT 2 Terminal interrupt signal
SIGKILL 9 Kill (cannot be caught or ignored)

How do you trigger a SIGKILL?

You can’t send it from a keyboard shortcut, but you can send it from the command line. Based on the man-page for kill, you are able to send a SIGTERM to any process. You would accomplish this by finding your process in the process table (type ps ) and then typing kill -15 [pid] .

Does Ctrl-C send SIGKILL?

The SIGINT signal is sent to a process by its controlling terminal when a user wishes to interrupt the process. This is typically initiated by pressing Ctrl-C, but on some systems, the “delete” character or “break” key can be used. The SIGKILL signal is sent to a process to cause it to terminate immediately (kill).

What happens on SIGKILL?

SIGKILL instructs the process to terminate immediately. It cannot be ignored or blocked. The process is killed, and if it is running threads, those are killed as well. If the SIGKILL signal fails to terminate a process and its threads, this indicates an operating system malfunction.

How do you trigger SIGINT?

You cause a SIGINT by pressing Ctrl+C .

What is the difference between SIGKILL and SIGSTOP?

The SIGKILL signal is used to abort a process, and the SIGSTOP signal is used to pause a process. The SIGTERM signal is the default signal sent to processes by commands such as kill and pkill when no signal is specified.

Does SIGINT trigger SIGTERM?

For example, by default, both SIGTERM and SIGINT lead to termination. But if you ignore SIGTERM then it will not terminate your process, while SIGINT still does.