<ul data-eligibleForWebStory="true"><li>Process signals in Linux are short messages sent to programs to instruct them to do specific actions like stop or restart.</li><li>Signals allow communication with processes using unique Process IDs (PIDs) in Linux.</li><li>Common reasons to use signals include stopping unresponsive programs, gracefully shutting down, restarting services, and pausing or resuming tasks.</li><li>One real-life use case for process signals is stopping a script stuck in an endless loop.</li><li>Common process signals include SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGKILL, SIGTERM, SIGCONT, and SIGSTOP.</li><li>Signals like SIGHUP can be used to restart programs or have servers re-read their config files without stopping.</li><li>To send a signal using 'kill', you find the process PID and use 'kill -<signal>' or 'kill <PID>' commands.</li><li>The kill -9 command is used to forcefully kill a process if it ignores the default SIGTERM signal.</li><li>Using 'killall' allows sending signals by name, for example, 'killall -SIGKILL firefox' to force quit Firefox.</li><li>Process signals help take control of runaway processes, stop services, automate tasks, and manage Linux systems efficiently.</li></ul>

Understanding Process Signals in Linux

Discover more