how can I kill a Linux process in java with SIGKILL Process.destroy() does SIGTERM

Question

In Linux when I run the destroy function on java.lang.Process object (Which is true typed java.lang.UNIXProcess ) it sends a SIGTERM signal to process, is there a way to kill it with SIGKILL?

Answer 1

Not using pure Java.

Your simplest alternative is to use Runtime.exec() to run a kill -9 <pid> command as an external process.

Unfortunately, it is not that simple to get hold of the PID. You will either need to use reflection black-magic to access the private int pid field, or mess around with the output from the ps command.

UPDATE - actually, there is another way. Create a little utility (C program, shell script, whatever) that will run the real external application. Code the utility so that it remembers the PID of the child process, and sets up a signal handler for SIGTERM that will SIGKILL the child process.