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000030_icon-group-sender _Tue Oct 20 12:05:00 1992.msg
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1993-01-04
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Received: by cheltenham.cs.arizona.edu; Tue, 20 Oct 1992 18:42:45 MST
Message-Id: <199210201711.AA23991@optima.cs.arizona.edu>
From: nowlin@iwtqg.att.com
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 92 12:05 CDT
To: att!cs.arizona.edu!icon-group
Subject: Re: logging off UNIX
Status: R
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
> You could get around this a) by finding your login shell and then
> killing it manually (a la system("kill -9 "||process_id) where pro-
> cess_id is the ID of your login shell.
I can't take it anymore. One of the first things UNIX novices learn is how
to do a "kill -9". Most haven't a clue what this does but believe me -
it's not a pretty sight.
If you have to kill a process use a plain vanilla "kill" first. This uses
the software termination signal (15) to notify the process in question it
should terminate. This signal gives the process being killed a chance to
return any resources it's using and clean up after itself before it dies.
If that doesn't work try using a "kill -1" which send a hangup signal to
the process. This is especially good for login shells since they usually
set traps to ignore software termination but most of the time they can
detect a hangup and clean up after themselves before logging you off.
If neither of these work then a "kill -9" with the kill signal (we always
called it terminate with extreme prejudice) is a last resort. The process
being terminated has no chance to dodge this signal or cleanup their mess.
I know this has nothing to do with Icon but I couldn't just continue to
have people leave bloody little splotches all over their systems by using
"kill -9". We need to put a stop to the senseless killing and work toward
a kinder gentler UNIX.
Jerry Nowlin