linuxshellprocesskill

What is the difference between kill and kill -9?

What is the difference between kill and kill -9 on the Linux command line?

Solution

  • kill aka kill -TERM aka kill -15 is the safe and correct way of terminating a process. It's equivalent to safely shutting down a computer.

    kill -9 is the unsafe way of brutally murdering a process. It's equivalent to pulling the power cord, and may cause data corruption.

    See the Linux&Unix stack exchange for more information.