How To Exit A Program In Ubuntu Server

                          To exit a program in Ubuntu Server (which uses a command-line interface)

you can use keyboard shortcuts for gracefully running programs or terminal commands

to terminate unresponsive ones. 

Keyboard Shortcuts:

Ctrl + C : This is the most common and graceful way to stop a running program that is in the foreground and meant to run continuously (like ping or a script in execution). It sends a SIGINT signal, which typically allows the program to clean up and exit properly.

Ctrl + D : This key combination is used to signal the end of input (end-of-transmission character) and will exit the current shell session or log you out of the server if you are at the main prompt.

Ctrl + Z : This will suspend the currently running program and return you to the shell prompt. The program remains in memory and can be resumed in the foreground with the

fg

command or moved to the background with the

bg

command. 

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Command Line Tools:

If a program does not respond to Ctrl + C or you need to stop a process running in the background, use the kill commands. 

Find the Process ID (PID) : Use the

ps aux

command combined with grep to find the process name and its associated PID, which is the second column in the output.

bash

ps aux | grep <program_name>

Alternatively, the

pgrep

command is more direct:

bash

pgrep <program_name>

Terminate the Program:

Graceful termination:

First, try the default kill command (sends SIGTERM, allowing for cleanup) with the program's PID:

bash

kill <PID>

Forceful termination:

If the program is frozen and doesn't respond to the graceful termination, use the -9 option (sends SIGKILL) as a last resort:

bash

kill -9 <PID>

Use

pkill

or

killall

These commands allow you to kill processes by name without needing the PID.

To kill all instances of a program by name:

bash

killall <program_name>

To kill a program by name using pattern matching:

bash

pkill <program_name>

 

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  Special Program Exits

Some command-line tools have their own specific exit commands: 

nano editor:

Press Ctrl + X and follow the prompts to save or exit.

vim editor: could be with colon left off

^

Press the Esc key,

then type

:q!

to exit without saving,

or

:wq

to save and exit.

less command (for viewing files):

Type

q

to quit the viewer.

top

or

htop

system monitors):

Type

q

to exit the monitoring interface.

Inside htop, you can also select a process and press F9 to bring up a kill menu.