> on the same topic, i always thought that kill -9 would end a process > imediately and uncleanly if needed, it there a command that will kill no > mater what, as in a "stop this stupid process, take away all resources > from it, forget it ever existed and if it gives you any shit ignore it" > command > > -munir no. there is not yet any 'kill it no matter what' command. kill -9 is pretty strong; but it can't kill *everything*. especially things that are waiting on I/O, are difficult to kill. I've managed to hang processes that were acessing CD-ROMs or tape drives, such that a reboot was needed to restore the operation of the device. tape drives are particularly bad, in my experience; I think it's because I/O is so slow on them. so *don't* kill a process (tar, dump, etc) that's acessing a tape device, unless you're willing to deal with it hanging and forcing a reboot to make it work again. Carl Soderstrom -- Network Engineer Real-Time Enterprises (952) 943-8700