kill -9 cannot kill process with parent PID = 1

Question

I have a process with parent PID = 1.

The command kill -9 382 doesn't work. I am root.

What can I do?

root       382     1  0 07:29 ?        00:00:00 dsmrecall /ptstv/HVideo/2014/2014761/G201476100010007.mxf

Maybe this will explain everything: What if 'kill -9' does not work? — Amit24x7, Jun 27 '17 at 12:21
What is the exact error message that kill returns? If there is none, then most likely the process is defunc. Unless you have any idea why that is, which seems unlikely, the simplest solution is to restart the system. I would be tempted to assume that another important relevant process was killed improperly. — Julie Pelletier, Jun 27 '17 at 16:21

Yaron · Answer 1 · 2017-06-27T12:12:25.510

1

The owner of the process is root hence you should execute the kill command as user root.

You can do it by running:

sudo kill -9 382

Or in two steps:

turn to be root using one of the below options:
- su -
- sudo su -
- sudo -i
kill the process as user root:

kill -9 382

man su

   su allows to run commands with a substitute user and group ID.

   When called without arguments, su defaults to running an interactive
   shell as root.

More info about sudo vs su

edited Jun 27 '17 at 12:12

answered Jun 27 '17 at 11:27

Yaron

4,289

The second option is not always possible. Better use sudo su - – Romeo Ninov Jun 27 '17 at 11:32
1

@RomeoNinov - thanks for the comment! updated my answer – Yaron Jun 27 '17 at 11:34
1

sudo su -? What's the purpose of that? – countermode Jun 27 '17 at 11:38
2

@coutermode agreed, you should use sudo -i instead. – thecarpy Jun 27 '17 at 11:56
Actually, I am already login with root. Is there something wrong with my system? – Hsing Yi Jun 27 '17 at 13:25
@HsingYi - what do you mean kill -9 doesn't work? what happened when you execute the command as root? – Yaron Jun 27 '17 at 13:27
@Yaron - I am already root, and kill -9 382 doesn't work, the process still exist. – Hsing Yi Jun 27 '17 at 13:47

kill -9 cannot kill process with parent PID = 1

1 Answers1