Re: killing perl scripts

Both ysth and rev_1318 make excellent points. But, be careful with SIG handlers. 'kill -9' should be an ultimately last resort if nothing else works, not just a way to kill a script. If you read the perldoc on signals and the POSIX module POD, you should get a much better idea of what (and what not) to do.

Because I have read those, and know a bit about signals, I will mention one thing further; try to avoid setting $SIG{KILL} unless you're positive you know what you're doing. If your KILL handler doesn't work properly, you may find yourself up a very smelly stream without an appropriate nautical navigation tool. ;-)

radiantmatrix
require General::Disclaimer; s//2fde04abe76c036c9074586c1/; while(m/(.)/g){print substr(' ,JPacehklnorstu',hex($1),1)}

Comment on Re: killing perl scripts

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: killing perl scripts by sgifford (Prior) on Dec 13, 2004 at 16:09 UTC
On my system at least, you can't catch `KILL`. This code prints `KILL signal caught` when `KILL` is caught: `[gifford@gifford gifford]$ perl -e'$SIG{KILL}=sub { die "KILL signal c +aught"; }; sleep(10)' & [1] 4316 [gifford@gifford gifford]$ kill -9 4316 [gifford@gifford gifford]$ [1]+ Killed perl -e'$SIG{KILL}=sub { die "KILL signa +l caught"; }; sleep(10)'` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: killing perl scripts by radiantmatrix (Parson) on Dec 13, 2004 at 18:54 UTC
Yes, that is how it should work. However, I have seen the occasional two-stage KILL signal, where `kill -9` sends SIGKILL only truly destroys the process if the SIG is not handled by the application after few ticks. I don't know how common that is, but it's still unwise to set `$SIG{KILL}` unless you know for sure it will be safe to do so. radiantmatrix `require General::Disclaimer; s//2fde04abe76c036c9074586c1/; while(m/(.)/g){print substr(' ,JPacehklnorstu',hex($1),1)}`	[reply]