SKILL(1)

๐Ÿ’– SKILL(1) โ€” the manual page bestie ๐Ÿ’–

okay so you opened the skill and snice manual page, from the General Commands Manual section, and honestly? we're about to have a moment. grab a snack. ๐Ÿ“


โœจ NAME โœจ

skill, snice โ€” send a signal or report process status. that's it, that's the whole job. sending vibes (signals) to your processes or just peeking at what they're up to. ๐Ÿ‘‘


โœจ SYNOPSIS โœจ

skill [signal-option] [other-option ...] expression

snice [new-priority] [option ...] expression

โœจ DESCRIPTION โœจ

okay bestie, real talk first. ๐Ÿซถ

These tools are obsolete and unportable. the command syntax is poorly defined. like, genuinely. please consider using killall, pkill, and pgrep instead. this is your sign. this is the universe telling you. โœจ

so. the default signal for skill is TERM. use -l or -L to list available signals โ€” that's your menu, order whatever you want. particularly useful signals include HUP, INT, KILL, STOP, CONT, and 0. alternate signals may be specified in three ways: -9, -SIGKILL, -KILL. three whole ways. pick your fighter. ๐Ÿ’…

the default priority for snice is +4. priority numbers range from +20 (slowest) to -20 (fastest). and listen โ€” negative priority numbers are restricted to administrative users, no cap. so if you're not admin and you try to go negative? that's a no from the kernel, girlie. ๐Ÿ’€


โœจ OPTIONS โœจ

  • -f, --fast โ€” Fast mode. literally has not been implemented. it's giving "coming soon" but forever. ๐Ÿ˜ญ
  • -i, --interactive โ€” Interactive use. you will be asked to approve each action. consent is key, always. ๐ŸŽ€
  • -l, --list โ€” List all signal names. the full roster, no filter.
  • -L, --table โ€” List all signal names in a nice table. same info, but make it fashion. ๐Ÿ’…
  • -n, --no-action โ€” No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur but do not actually change the system. a dress rehearsal. a vision board. nothing real happens. ๐Ÿฆ‹
  • -v, --verbose โ€” Verbose; explain what is being done. the tool starts narrating its own life. main character energy fr.
  • -w, --warnings โ€” Enable warnings. also not implemented. two for two on the vaporware, iconic behavior honestly. ๐Ÿ™ˆ
  • -h, --help โ€” Display help text and exit.
  • -V, --version โ€” Display version information.

โœจ PROCESS SELECTION OPTIONS โœจ

so like, how do you tell it which processes you mean? selection criteria can be: terminal, user, pid, command. the options below may be used to ensure correct interpretation โ€” i.e. so it doesn't guess wrong and embarrass you both. ๐ŸŒธ

  • -t tty, --tty tty โ€” the next expression is a terminal (tty or pty).
  • -u user, --user user โ€” the next expression is a username.
  • -p pid, --pid pid โ€” the next expression is a process ID number.
  • -c command, --command command โ€” the next expression is a command name.
  • --ns pid โ€” match the processes that belong to the same namespace as pid.
  • --nslist ns,... โ€” list which namespaces will be considered for the --ns option. available namespaces: ipc, mnt, net, pid, user, uts.

โœจ SIGNALS โœจ

the behavior of signals is explained in signal(7) manual page. go read that one if you want the deep lore. โญ


โœจ EXAMPLES โœจ

because seeing it is believing it, bestie ๐Ÿ’–

snice -c seti -c crack +7

slow down seti and crack commands. like telling your friends to chill, but for CPU. ๐ŸŒ

skill -KILL -t /dev/pts/*

kill users on PTY devices. harsh? yes. effective? also yes. ๐Ÿ’€

skill -STOP -u viro -u lm -u davem

stop three users. just three. very specific. very targeted. ๐ŸŽฏ


โœจ SEE ALSO โœจ

kill(1), kill(2), killall(1), nice(1), pkill(1), renice(1), signal(7)

(the friend group. the whole squad. go say hi.) ๐Ÿ‘‘


โœจ STANDARDS โœจ

No standards apply. not a single one. it's ungoverned and it knows it. ๐ŸŒˆ


โœจ AUTHOR โœจ

Albert Cahalan wrote skill and snice in 1999 as a replacement for a non-free version. a legend, a pioneer, an icon. ๐ŸŽ€


โœจ REPORTING BUGS โœจ

found something cursed? please send bug reports to procps@freelists.org. tell them everything. we love a detailed bug report. ๐Ÿ’œ


and that's the whole page, bestie!! โœจ this beauty came from procps-ng and it's dated 2024-08-01. you're now officially skilled (and snice'd). go forth, send signals responsibly, and remember โ€” it's obsolete, so maybe use pkill instead. no cap. ๐Ÿ’–๐Ÿฆ‹๐ŸŒธ

๐Ÿ“ฆ where this page comes from