killpg(3)

NAME#

killpg - send signal to a process group

LIBRARY#

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS#

#include <signal.h>

int killpg(int \npgrp\n, int \nsig\n);

killpg():

\n
    _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
\n
        || /* Since glibc 2.19: */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
\n
        || /* glibc <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION#

killpg() sends the signal sig to the process group pgrp. See signal(7) for a list of signals.

If pgrp is 0, killpg() sends the signal to the calling process's process group. (POSIX says: if pgrp is less than or equal to 1, the behavior is undefined.)

For the permissions required to send a signal to another process, see kill(2).

RETURN VALUE#

On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS#

EINVAL

sig is not a valid signal number.

EPERM

The process does not have permission to send the signal to any of the target processes. For the required permissions, see kill(2).

ESRCH

No process can be found in the process group specified by pgrp.

ESRCH

The process group was given as 0 but the sending process does not have a process group.

VERSIONS#

There are various differences between the permission checking in BSD-type systems and System V-type systems. See the POSIX rationale for kill(3p). A difference not mentioned by POSIX concerns the return value EPERM: BSD documents that no signal is sent and EPERM returned when the permission check failed for at least one target process, while POSIX documents EPERM only when the permission check failed for all target processes.

C library/kernel differences#

On Linux, killpg() is implemented as a library function that makes the call kill(-pgrp, sig).

STANDARDS#

POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY#

POSIX.1-2001, SVr4, 4.4BSD (first appeared in 4BSD).

SEE ALSO#

getpgrp(2), kill(2), signal(2), capabilities(7), credentials(7)