kill
Synopsis
#include <signal.h>
int kill(pid_t pid, int sig);
Status
Partially implemented
Conformance
IEEE Std 1003.1-2017
Description
The kill() function shall send a signal to a process or a group of processes specified by pid. The signal to be sent
is specified by sig and is either one from the list given in <signal.h> or 0. If sig is 0 (the null signal),
error checking is performed, but no signal is actually sent. The null signal can be used to check the validity of
pid.
For a process to have permission to send a signal to a process designated by pid, unless the sending process has appropriate privileges, the real or effective user ID of the sending process shall match the real or saved set-user-ID of the receiving process.
If pid is greater than 0, sig shall be sent to the process whose process ID is equal to pid.
If pid is 0, sig shall be sent to all processes (excluding an unspecified set of system processes) whose process
group ID is equal to the process group ID of the sender, and for which the process has permission to send a signal.
If pid is -1, sig shall be sent to all processes (excluding an unspecified set of system processes) for which the
process has permission to send that signal.
If pid is negative, but not -1, sig shall be sent to all processes (excluding an unspecified set of system
processes) whose process group ID is equal to the absolute value of pid, and for which the process has permission
to send a signal.
If the value of pid causes sig to be generated for the sending process, and if sig is not blocked for the calling
thread and if no other thread has sig unblocked or is waiting in a sigwait() function for sig, either sig or at
least one pending unblocked signal shall be delivered to the sending thread before kill() returns.
The user ID tests described above shall not be applied when sending SIGCONT to a process that is a member of the same
session as the sending process.
An implementation that provides extended security controls may impose further implementation-defined restrictions on the
sending of signals, including the null signal. In particular, the system may deny the existence of some or all of the
processes specified by pid.
The kill() function is successful if the process has permission to send sig to any of the processes specified by
pid. If kill() fails, no signal shall be sent.
Return value
Upon successful completion, 0 shall be returned. Otherwise, -1 shall be returned and errno set to indicate the
error.
Errors
The kill() function shall fail if:
-
EINVAL- The value of the sig argument is an invalid or unsupported signal number. -
EPERM- The process does not have permission to send the signal to any receiving process. -
ESRCH- No process or process group can be found corresponding to that specified by pid.
Tests
Untested
Known bugs
None