Documentation Reference Number: #1011

Linux

I. Introduction

Linux is a operating system kernel. Linux distributions are complete operating systems which pair the Linux kernel with other programs. Examples of some Linux distributions are Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora.

II. Signals

Linux signals are a way for the kernel to communicate events to a process. There are 31 basic signals that Linux defines.

Signal Number	Signal Name	Signal Description
1	SIGHUP	Generally this signal will re-initialize the process by re-reading configuration files.
2	SIGINT	Signals the receiving process to terminate.
3	SIGQUIT	Terminates the receiving process and generates a core dump file for debugging.
4	SIGILL	An illegal instruction exists in the program image.
5	SIGTRAP	Indicator of a 'trap' or breakpoint in the executing program.
6	SIGABRT	Indicates abnormal termination condition.
7	SIGBUS	Indicates that a memory access problem has occurred.
8	SIGFPE	Indicates that an erroneous arithmetic operation has occurred.