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# Kill a background job without a message

---- dataentry snipplet ---- snipplet_tags: kill, process management, jobs LastUpdate_dt: 2010-07-31 Contributors: Jan Schampera type: snipplet

When you start background jobs from within a script (non-interactive shell) and kill it afterwards, you will get a message from the shell that the process was terminated.

Example:

    #!/bin/bash

    # example background process
    sleep 300 &

    # get the PID
    BG_PID=$!

    # kill it, hard and mercyless
    kill -9 $BG_PID

    echo "Yes, we killed it"

You will get something like this:

    $ ./bg_kill1.sh
    ./bg_kill1.sh: line 11:  3413 Killed                  sleep 300
    Yes, we killed it

This is more or less a normal message. And it can't be easily redirected since it's the shell itself that yells this message, not the command `kill` or something else. You would have to redirect the whole script's output.

It's also useless to temporarily redirect `stderr` when you call the `kill` command, since the successful termination of the job, the termination of the `kill` command and the message from the shell may not happen at the same time. And a blind `sleep` after the `kill` would be just a workaround.

The solution is relatively easy: The shell spits that message because it controls the background job, and when it terminates, the shell will tell you whenever possible. Now you just need to tell your shell that it is no longer responsible for that background process. This is done by the `disown` command, which can take an internal shell job number (like `%1`) or a process ID as argument.

    #!/bin/bash

    # example background process
    sleep 300 &

    # get the PID
    BG_PID=$!

    ### HERE, YOU TELL THE SHELL TO NOT CARE ANY MORE ###
    disown $BG_PID
    ###

    # kill it, hard and mercyless, now without a trace
    kill -9 $BG_PID

    echo "Yes, we killed it"

That way, you can run and kill background processes without disturbing messages.

November 7, 2024
November 7, 2024

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