How to stop a running process in Linux?

There are several ways to stop a running process in Linux:

1. Find the PID (process ID) using the command:

ps aux | grep process_name

2. Use the kill command to send a termination signal:

kill PID

By default, the SIGTERM (15) signal is sent, which properly terminates the process.

3. If the process does not terminate, you can send the SIGKILL (9) signal:

kill -9 PID

4. For convenience, you can use pkill by process name:

pkill process_name

5. Also, killall terminates all processes with the specified name:

killall process_name

It is important to use SIGKILL only if other signals do not work, as it does not give the process a chance to properly release resources.