Bash 5 reference · Text and System Tools

ps and kill (Linux command)

List processes with ps and send signals with kill: SIGTERM to ask a process to stop, SIGKILL only as a last resort.

Bash 5

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Syntax

ps [aux|-ef|-o FIELDS -p PID]   kill [-SIGNAL] PID   pgrep / pkill PATTERN

Parameter	Description
`ps -o pid,args -p PID`	Chosen columns for one process.
`kill PID`	Send SIGTERM.
`kill -9 PID`	SIGKILL: no cleanup.
`kill -0 PID`	Check whether a process exists.
`pkill -P PID`	Only children of PID: safer than matching with -f.

Inspect and stop a process

sleep 30 &
pid=$!
ps -o args= -p "$pid"
kill "$pid"; wait "$pid" 2>/dev/null; echo "exit status $? (143 = SIGTERM)"

Output

sleep 30
exit status 143 (143 = SIGTERM)

Run this on your computer — see “Get Started” for setup.

Find and stop this shell's children

sleep 60 & sleep 60 &
pgrep -c -P $$ sleep
pkill -P $$ sleep; wait 2>/dev/null; echo stopped

Output

2
stopped

Run this on your computer — see “Get Started” for setup.

trap · Run commands when the script exits or receives a signal; the standard way to clean up temporary files and child processes.
Bash Processes and Jobs · tutorial