KILL(2-BSD) RISC/os Reference Manual KILL(2-BSD)
NAME
kill - send signal to a process
SYNOPSIS
kill(pid, sig)
int pid, sig;
DESCRIPTION
kill sends the signal sig to a process, specified by the
process number pid. sig may be one of the signals specified
in sigvec(2), or it may be 0, in which case error checking
is performed but no signal is actually sent. This can be
used to check the validity of pid.
The sending and receiving processes must have the same
effective user ID, otherwise this call is restricted to the
super-user. A single exception is the signal SIGCONT, which
may always be sent to any descendant of the current process.
If the process number is 0, the signal is sent to all
processes in the sender's process group; this is a variant
of killpg(2).
If the process number is -1 and the user is the super-user,
the signal is broadcast universally except to system
processes and the process sending the signal. If the pro-
cess number is -1 and the user is not the super-user, the
signal is broadcast universally to all processes with the
same uid as the user except the process sending the signal.
No error is returned if any process could be signaled.
For compatibility with System V, if the process number is
negative but not -1, the signal is sent to all processes
whose process group ID is equal to the absolute value of the
process number. This is a variant of killpg(2).
Processes may send signals to themselves.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Oth-
erwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indi-
cate the error.
ERRORS
kill will fail and no signal will be sent if any of the fol-
lowing occur:
[EINVAL] sig is not a valid signal number.
[ESRCH] No process can be found corresponding to
that specified by pid.
Printed 11/19/92 Page 1
KILL(2-BSD) RISC/os Reference Manual KILL(2-BSD)
[ESRCH] The process id was given as 0 but the
sending process does not have a process
group.
[EPERM] The sending process is not the super-
user and its effective user id does not
match the effective user-id of the
receiving process. When signaling a
process group, this error was returned
if any members of the group could not be
signaled.
SEE ALSO
getpid(2), getpgrp(2), killpg(2), sigvec(2)
Page 2 Printed 11/19/92