Kill a Process?

F

freaky

OSXer
Finder has been moving a file for the past 20 minutes and I would like to kill the process. I can't get the menu to come when going over the Apple. Can somebody please tell me what i need to type in to get the list of processes to come up so I can kill it?
 
In the terminal, type "top" or "ps -x" to show processes and PID. Then type "kill PID" where PID is the process ID of the process you want to kill.

To kill from the GUI you can press cmd-alt-esc to bring up a little menu to do this.
 
But bobw, in some keyboards (e.g. Italian macs) on the option key it says "alt" not option. And on the apple key there's just the apple logo and the command picture.. :p
 
My option key says 'alt' AND 'option'... ;) I've got the Apple Pro Keyboard, US English, from 2000.
 

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Just remember that it's "Option" and not "Alt" and we'll leave you alone. ;)

I would be careful killing a process that is copying a file somewhere. You will definitely end up with an unusable file where you were copying it, and you could corrupt the original file as well. After you do this, I recommend you run Disk Utility and check your disk and repair permissions just to be on the safe side.
 
I have a 15" US Powerbook that is just over a month old and it says "alt" above the "option" key.

I just tried clicking "Command-Option-Escape" all at the same time while Safari is locked up and it didn't make any difference.

If anybody has any suggestions as to what I need to do to shut down Safari, please let me know.

BTW....this is the second time (and program) to lock up like this the past 12 hours. I thought these kind of problems (programs locking up and not being able to kill them) only happened on Windoze???
 
Get that PC keyboard off your Mac or I'm tellin Steve
Click to expand...
LOL! I don't think any PC keyboard would fit on my 12" PB ... ;) :D

if kill PID doesn't work, you can try "kill -9 PID". Use top or ps -x to see the PID of Safari. Hitting cmd-opt-esc should bring up a menu in which you can select the applicaiton to force-quit. ctrl-click on the Dock icon should also bring up a pop-up menu where you can select force-quit. If the menu says only quit, pressing opt will change that in force-quit.
One of these methods will surely work to quit a locked application. ;) Good Luck!
If frustration builds up try this or this!
 
Whatabout Activity Monitor? It shows much more than ForceQuit, and more maclike for us non-unixers. I use it at least once a week just to quit weatherpop when it decides to take over my mac.

PS: I tried to do "top", but once i'm in it, i can't get out, or type anything at all. how do you do this?
 
I've said this before, and I'll say it again... always type "man" before you enter a terminal command you are unfamiliar with. For example, when someone tells you to do top, type man top first so you know what you're doing.
 
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