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    SKILL

    WillieBy Updated:No Comments2 Mins Read

    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.

    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

    Willie has over 15 years of experience in Linux system administration and DevOps. After managing infrastructure for startups and enterprises alike, he founded Command Linux to share the practical knowledge he wished he had when starting out. He oversees content strategy and contributes guides on server management, automation, and security.

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