Linux: get the exit code from the kill command

linux kill exit-code sigterm
Rox picture Rox · Nov 24, 2011 · Viewed 15.5k times · Source

If I send a SIGTERM signal to a process using the kill command, I expect an exit code, but I always get 0 (zero) when running the below command after killing a process:

echo $?

According to the answer in this post, I should get 143 when sending a SIGTERM to a process: Always app Java end with "Exit 143" Ubuntu

But I don´t get that exit code. Why?

Answer

Fred Foo picture Fred Foo · Nov 24, 2011

The exit code you get is for the kill command itself. 0 means it succeeded, i.e. the other process got the signal you sent it. kill just doesn't report the exit status for the process, since it can't even be sure the other process exited as a result of the signal it sent.

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