affaan-m/ECC · error · anyhow::Error

taskkill exited with status {status}

Error message

taskkill exited with status {status}

What it means

On Windows, the kill_process function invokes taskkill /PID <pid> /T /F to terminate a process tree. If taskkill exits with a non-zero status code, the function returns an error. This typically means the target process does not exist, access is denied, or taskkill itself failed.

Source

Thrown at ecc2/src/session/manager.rs:3618

#[cfg(unix)]
fn kill_process(pid: u32) -> Result<()> {
    send_signal(pid, libc::SIGTERM)?;
    std::thread::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_millis(1200));
    send_signal(pid, libc::SIGKILL)?;
    Ok(())
}

#[cfg(windows)]
fn kill_process(pid: u32) -> Result<()> {
    let status = std::process::Command::new("taskkill")
        .args(["/PID", &pid.to_string(), "/T", "/F"])
        .status()
        .with_context(|| format!("Failed to invoke taskkill for process {pid}"))?;

    if status.success() {
        Ok(())
    } else {
        Err(anyhow::anyhow!("taskkill exited with status {status}"))
    }
}

#[cfg(unix)]
fn send_signal(pid: u32, signal: i32) -> Result<()> {
    let outcome = unsafe { libc::kill(pid as i32, signal) };
    if outcome == 0 {
        return Ok(());
    }

    let error = std::io::Error::last_os_error();
    if error.raw_os_error() == Some(libc::ESRCH) {
        return Ok(());
    }

    Err(error).with_context(|| format!("Failed to kill process {pid}"))
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

1. Check if the process is still running before attempting to kill it (track exit independently)
2. Run the ECC process with sufficient privileges to terminate the target process
3. Treat ESRCH-equivalent (process already gone) as success rather than error
4. Use the /F flag (already present) and ensure /T is used to kill the entire process tree

Example fix

// before
kill_process(pid)?;

// after
match kill_process(pid) {
    Ok(()) => {},
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("taskkill exited") => {
        tracing::warn!("process {pid} may have already exited: {e}");
    }
    Err(e) => return Err(e),
}

match kill_process(pid) {
    Ok(()) => Ok(()),
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("taskkill exited") => {
        tracing::warn!("taskkill failed for pid {pid}, process may have already exited: {e}");
        Ok(())
    }
    Err(e) => Err(e),
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling kill_process(pid) on Windows where taskkill returns a non-zero exit code — the process may have already exited, the PID may be invalid, or the user lacks permissions.

Common situations: Process already exited before the kill call. PID belongs to a process owned by a different user or with higher privileges. taskkill.exe is not available or restricted by group policy. Antivirus blocking taskkill.

Related errors

• Command "${commandName}" terminated by signal ${result.signa
• File path contains unsafe shell characters
• Formatter exited with status ${result.status}
• Claude Code command contains characters that are unsafe for
• ${command} ${args.join(' ')} failed: ${result.error.message}

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/907d7abe3330aeea. Report an issue: GitHub.