what is the signal call used for in c code example

Example: c signals

#define SIGHUP  1   /* Hangup the process */ 
#define SIGINT  2   /* Interrupt the process */ 
#define SIGQUIT 3   /* Quit the process */ 
#define SIGILL  4   /* Illegal instruction. */ 
#define SIGTRAP 5   /* Trace trap. */ 
#define SIGABRT 6   /* Abort. */