NAME

       skill, snice - send a signal or report process status

SYNOPSIS

       skill [signal] [options] expression
       snice [new priority] [options] expression

DESCRIPTION

       These  tools are obsolete and unportable.  The command syntax is poorly defined.  Consider
       using the killall, pkill, and pgrep commands instead.

       The default signal  for  skill  is  TERM.   Use  -l  or  -L  to  list  available  signals.
       Particularly  useful signals include HUP, INT, KILL, STOP, CONT, and 0.  Alternate signals
       may be specified in three ways: -9 -SIGKILL -KILL.

       The default priority for snice is +4.  Priority numbers range from +20  (slowest)  to  -20
       (fastest).  Negative priority numbers are restricted to administrative users.

OPTIONS

       -f, --fast
              Fast mode.  This option has not been implemented.

       -i, --interactive
              Interactive use.  You will be asked to approve each action.

       -l, --list
              List all signal names.

       -L, --table
              List all signal names in a nice table.

       -n, --no-action
              No  action;  perform  a  simulation  of events that would occur but do not actually
              change the system.

       -v, --verbose
              Verbose; explain what is being done.

       -w, --warnings
              Enable warnings.  This option has not been implemented.

       -h, --help
              Display help text and exit.

       -V, --version
              Display version information.

PROCESS SELECTION OPTIONS

       Selection criteria can be: terminal, user, pid, command.  The options below may be used to
       ensure correct interpretation.

       -t, --tty tty
              The next expression is a terminal (tty or pty).

       -u, --user user
              The next expression is a username.

       -p, --pid pid
              The next expression is a process ID number.

       -c, --command command
              The next expression is a command name.

       --ns pid
              Match the processes that belong to the same namespace as pid.

       --nslist ns,...
              list   which  namespaces  will  be  considered  for  the  --ns  option.   Available
              namespaces: ipc, mnt, net, pid, user, uts.

SIGNALS

       The behavior of signals is explained in signal(7) manual page.

EXAMPLES

       snice -c seti -c crack +7
              +Slow down seti and crack commands.

       skill -KILL -t /dev/pts/*
              Kill users on PTY devices.

       skill -STOP -u viro -u lm -u davem
              Stop three users.

SEE ALSO

       kill(1), kill(2), killall(1), nice(1), pkill(1), renice(1), signal(7)

STANDARDS

       No standards apply.

AUTHOR

       Albert Cahalan ⟨albert@users.sf.net⟩ wrote skill and snice in 1999 as a replacement for  a
       non-free version.

REPORTING BUGS

       Please send bug reports to ⟨procps@freelists.org⟩