SKILL
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 2018-05-31
Page Index
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
wrote skill and snice in 1999 as a replacement for a non-free
version.
REPORTING BUGS
Please send bug reports to