process_kill_pid_signal.md

• pid {number} A process ID
• signal {string|number} The signal to send, either as a string or number. Defaults to 'SIGTERM'.

The process.kill() method sends the signal to the process identified by pid.

Signal names are strings such as 'SIGINT' or 'SIGHUP'. See [Signal Events][] and kill(2) for more information.

This method will throw an error if the target pid does not exist. As a special case, a signal of 0 can be used to test for the existence of a process. Windows platforms will throw an error if the pid is used to kill a process group.

Note: Even though the name of this function is process.kill(), it is really just a signal sender, like the kill system call. The signal sent may do something other than kill the target process.

For example:

process.on('SIGHUP', () => {
  console.log('Got SIGHUP signal.');
});

setTimeout(() => {
  console.log('Exiting.');
  process.exit(0);
}, 100);

process.kill(process.pid, 'SIGHUP');

Note: When SIGUSR1 is received by a Node.js process, Node.js will start the debugger, see [Signal Events][].