How do I close programs that I can't see?
 

pptp for example, how would I close it? (it doesn't have a GUI).
I know
# killall pptp
works but is that the proper way to close the program?

one way is to type

ps -ax

this will list all running processes, find the PID number for the process you want to shut down and type

kill xxxx

where xxxx is PID

or

you can do a similar thing with either KDE System Guard or Gnome System Monitor
both list all running processes in a GUI

I use

ps -A -f | grep programname

and then just kill -9 or kill -1 and then die program PID, like the other post said.

You can also pkill :) You can kill HUP something to tell it to hang up, this is what I generally use when an application just needs to be 'reset'.

Cool

This is also a good command if you know just the process name

Ex: For pppd

kill -9 `pgrep pppd`

{but -9 is not the safest option)

Where pgrep is process grep command
Cheers
Z