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Terminate a Process by PID with kill

Send a normal termination signal to one specific process, and escalate to a forced kill only if it refuses to quit.

macOSProcessesTerminalMedium risk
Run kill <PID> to ask the process to exit cleanly; if it survives, run kill -9 <PID> to force it.

01Command

Command
$ kill <PID>

02What it does

kill sends the default TERM signal, which a well-behaved application catches so it can save state and release files before exiting. If the process ignores TERM and stays alive, kill -9 sends SIGKILL, which the kernel uses to remove the process immediately and which the process cannot intercept or handle.

03Risk

RiskMedium risk
!Warning: kill -9 gives the process no chance to save work or close files, so it can leave autosave data, temp files, or databases in a bad state. Always try plain kill first.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • kill — terminate or signal a process (macOS)
    SS64 · technical · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: The page shows ending a program with plain kill ("$ kill 1293") and then "Or to really kill it: $ kill -9 1293", and notes that kill defaults to sending TERM.
  • KILL(1) — macOS man page
    KEITH · technical · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: The man page synopsis includes "kill - signal_number pid ..." (so kill -9 PID is valid) and states the default signal is TERM, which can be caught to allow a clean exit.

Last verified: 2026-09-19 · Category: System & Settings

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