Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: kill -9
Message-ID: <14166@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 16 Oct 90 21:20:22 GMT
References: <24788@adm.BRL.MIL>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 16

In article <24788@adm.BRL.MIL> frech@mwraaa.army.mil (Norman R. Frech CPLS) writes:
>Is there a stronger kill than kill -9?

No.

>I had a process which attached itself to my tape drive and then locked up.
>I couldn't kill it no matter what I tried.

Actually, the signal was probably posted to the process, but as the process
was sleeping in the kernel at a "negative" priority, which is a common
problem with some device drivers in some UNIX kernels, it never reached a
state in which it could be terminated.

Sometimes, playing with the "hung" device (e.g., rewinding the tape, or
turning off power to the controller) will cause an interrupt that may
suffice to get the device driver unwedged.