kill - Terminate Processes in Linux
From the Linux Essential Commands cheat sheet · Process Management · verified Jul 2026
kill - Terminate Processes
Send signals to processes to stop them
bash
# Kill by PID
kill 1234
# Force kill
kill -9 1234
# Kill by name
killall process_name
pkill process_name
# List signals
kill -l✅ kill sends SIGTERM (graceful shutdown) by default
💡 -9 sends SIGKILL (force kill, no cleanup)
🔍 Use ps aux | grep to find process PIDs
⚡ killall affects all processes with that name
processeskillterminate