What methods can be used to correctly stop or terminate a program in Linux?

In Linux, programs can be properly stopped in several ways:

• Sending SIGTERM signal (kill) — the standard way to ask a program to terminate, allowing it to clean up resources.

  kill <pid>
  

• SIGINT (Ctrl+C) — interruption from the terminal, usually stops the program.
• SIGKILL (kill -9) — forceful termination without the possibility of handling, used if the program is unresponsive.
• killall command — terminates processes by name.
• Using built-in commands of the program — for example, some applications have commands for proper shutdown.

It is important to first try gentle signals (SIGTERM, SIGINT) to avoid data loss or state corruption.