---
name: "pmsignal"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "pcp"
version: "7.2.2-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pmsignal"
---

# pmsignal(1)

send a signal to one or more processes

## NAME

**pmsignal** - send a signal to one or more processes

## SYNOPSIS

**$PCP\_BINADM\_DIR/pmsignal** \[**-alnp**\] \[**-s** *signal*\] \[*PID* ...\|*name* ...\]

## DESCRIPTION

**pmsignal** provides a cross-platform event signalling mechanism for use with tools from the Performance Co-Pilot toolkit. It can be used to send a named *signal* (only HUP, USR1, TERM, and KILL are accepted) to one or more processes.

The processes are specified directly using PIDs or as program names (with either the **-a** or **-p** options). In the **all** case, the set of all running processes is searched for a [**basename**(1)](/basename/1.md) match on *name*. In the **program** case, process identifiers are extracted from files in the $PCP\_RUN\_DIR directory where file names are matched on *name*.pid.

The **-n** option reports the list of process identifiers that would have been signalled, but no signals are actually sent.

If a *signal* is not specified, then the TERM signal will be sent. The list of supported signals is reported when using the **-l** option.

On Linux and UNIX platforms, *pmsignal* is a simple wrapper around the [*kill*(1)](/kill/1.md) command. On Windows, the is no direct equivalent to this mechanism, and so an alternate mechanism has been implemented - this is only honoured by PCP tools, however, not all Windows utilities.

## OPTIONS

The available command line options are:

- **-a**, **--all**

  Send signal to all named processes.

- **-l**, **--list**

  List supported signals.

- **-n**, **--dry-run**

  List processes that would be affected.

- **-p**, **--program**

  Extract programs from PCP runtime PID files.

- **-s** *signal*, **--signal**=*signal*

  Specify the signal to send, one of: HUP, USR1, TERM, KILL.

- **-?**, **--help**

  Display usage message and exit.

## PCP ENVIRONMENT

Environment variables with the prefix **PCP\_** are used to parameterize the file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file */etc/pcp.conf* contains the local values for these variables. The **$PCP\_CONF** variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration file, as described in [**pcp.conf**(5)](/pcp.conf/5.md).

## SEE ALSO

[**basename**(1)](/basename/1.md), [**kill**(1)](/kill/1.md), [**killall**(1)](/killall/1.md), [**pcp.conf**(5)](/pcp.conf/5.md) and [**pcp.env**(5)](/pcp.env/5.md).