Processes and Signals

Core idea

Linux process control is easier when you understand PIDs, foreground/background jobs, and common signals.

Revision points

• ps, top, and htop help inspect process state.
• SIGTERM asks a process to stop cleanly.
• SIGKILL forcefully terminates when cleanup is no longer possible.

ps aux | grep node
kill -TERM 12345

What to remember

Use the gentlest signal that solves the problem.