HOWTO: Manage Processes - the KILL Signal
There are a number of signals that can be sent to running processes to manage their execution. One of my favourite (based entirely on the name) and arguably more useful commands is the kill command.
kill -9 pid
Quite simply sends signal 9, the kill signal, to the specified pid (process identidication). You can find the pid of a runaway process using the ps or top commands.
The kill command tells a process to stop execution immediately regardless of any cleanup that it may want to do. Therefore, kill should only be used as a last resort and the TERM (15) signal should be attempted first as it allows processes to do their garbage cleanup first.
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