Why number 9 in kill -9 command in unix? [closed]

Answer 1

Type the kill -l command on your shell

you will found that at 9th number [ 9) SIGKILL ], so one can use either kill -9 or kill -SIGKILL

SIGKILL is sure kill signal, It can not be dis-positioned, ignore or handle. It always work with its default behaviour, which is to kill the process.

Answer 2

There were 8 other signals they came up with first.

Answer 3

SIGKILL use to kill the process. SIGKILL can not be ignored or handled. In Linux, Ways to give SIGKILL.

kill -9 <process_pid> 
kill -SIGKILL <process_pid> 
killall -SIGKILL <process_name>
killall -9 <process_name>

Answer 4

It's a reference to "Revoulution 9" by the Beatles. A collection of strung together sound clips and found noises, this recording features John Lennon repeating over and over "Number 9, Number 9..." Further, this song drew further attention in 1969 when it was discovered that when played backwards, John seemed to be saying "Turn me on, dead man..."

Therefore the ninth signal was destined to be the deadliest of the kill signals.

Answer 5

Both are same as kill -sigkill processID, kill -9 processID. Its basically for forced termination of the process.

Answer 6

The -9 is the signal_number, and specifies that the kill message sent should be of the KILL (non-catchable, non-ignorable) type.

kill -9 pid

Which is same as below.

kill -SIGKILL pid

Without specifying a signal_number the default is -15, which is TERM (software termination signal). Typing kill <pid> is the same as kill -15 <pid>.