How to kill a process?
Find the Process ID (PID)
The active processes on a machine are listed with the command:
ps -ef
The list contains in the first column the name of the owner and in the second column the process identification number. (PID). Example:
glslogin1> ps -ef UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD root 1 0 0 Apr30 ? 00:00:41 /sbin/init splash ...
A more precise selection is done with the unix command "grep".. Example:
glslogin1> ps -ef | grep albert albert 1733 1730 0 Dec 09 pts/7 0:02 /usr/local/bin/tcsh ...
Kill the Process
A process can only be killed if it belongs to you...
If you own the process, you can kill it with the command:
kill -9 <PID> [...]
Example
glslogin1> kill -9 1733
If he doesn't belong to you and it's essential that he be killed you must:
- either have this process killed by someone with Super User privileges. (root).
- or reboot the computer on which this process is running.
Use T_reboot_lcu, T_reboot_servers, T_reboot_master commands to easily reboot machines.
Use of "top"
Note: the "top" command displays the processes consuming the most CPUs (sorted in descending order of consumption).
Once launched you can (esc will abort the current action) type:
- h to get help
- n<n><return> to change the number of processes displayed
- k<pid><return>9<return> to kill a process
- q to quit
- ...
LW 11/05/2020