killpg(3) Library Functions Manual killpg(3)

killpg - send signal to a process group

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

#include <signal.h>
int killpg(int pgrp, int sig);

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

killpg():

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

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).

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

sig is not a valid signal number.
The process does not have permission to send the signal to any of the target processes. For the required permissions, see kill(2).
No process can be found in the process group specified by pgrp.
The process group was given as 0 but the sending process does not have a process group.

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.

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

POSIX.1-2008.

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

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

2023-10-31 Linux man-pages 6.7