1KILLALL(1)                       User Commands                      KILLALL(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       killall - kill processes by name
7

SYNOPSIS

9       killall [-Z,--context pattern] [-e,--exact] [-g,--process-group]
10       [-i,--interactive] [-q,--quiet] [-r,--regexp] [-s,--signal signal]
11       [-u,--user user] [-v,--verbose] [-w,--wait] [-I,--ignore-case]
12       [-V,--version] [--] name ...
13       killall -l
14       killall -V,--version
15

DESCRIPTION

17       killall sends a signal to all processes running any  of  the  specified
18       commands. If no signal name is specified, SIGTERM is sent.
19
20       Signals  can  be specified either by name (e.g. -HUP or -SIGHUP ) or by
21       number (e.g. -1) or by option -s.
22
23       If the command name is not regular expression (option -r) and  contains
24       a  slash (/), processes executing that particular file will be selected
25       for killing, independent of their name.
26
27       killall returns a zero return code if at least  one  process  has  been
28       killed for each listed command, or no commands were listed and at least
29       one process matched the -u and -Z search criteria. killall returns non-
30       zero otherwise.
31
32       A  killall  process never kills itself (but may kill other killall pro‐
33       cesses).
34

OPTIONS

36       -e, --exact
37              Require an exact match for very long names. If a command name is
38              longer  than  15  characters,  the  full name may be unavailable
39              (i.e. it is swapped out). In this case, killall will kill every‐
40              thing that matches within the first 15 characters. With -e, such
41              entries are skipped.  killall prints a message for each  skipped
42              entry if -v is specified in addition to -e,
43
44       -I, --ignore-case
45              Do case insensitive process name match.
46
47       -g, --process-group
48              Kill  the  process  group to which the process belongs. The kill
49              signal is only sent once per group, even if  multiple  processes
50              belonging to the same process group were found.
51
52       -i, --interactive
53              Interactively ask for confirmation before killing.
54
55       -l, --list
56              List all known signal names.
57
58       -q, --quiet
59              Do not complain if no processes were killed.
60
61       -r, --regexp
62              Interpret  process  name  pattern as an extended regular expres‐
63              sion.
64
65       -s, --signal
66              Send this signal instead of SIGTERM.
67
68       -u, --user
69              Kill only processes the specified user owns. Command  names  are
70              optional.
71
72       -v, --verbose
73              Report if the signal was successfully sent.
74
75       -V, --version
76              Display version information.
77
78       -w, --wait
79              Wait  for  all  killed processes to die. killall checks once per
80              second if any of the  killed  processes  still  exist  and  only
81              returns if none are left.  Note that killall may wait forever if
82              the signal was ignored, had no effect, or if the  process  stays
83              in zombie state.
84
85       -Z, --context
86              (SELinux  Only)  Specify  security  context: kill only processes
87              having security context that match with given  expended  regular
88              expression  pattern. Must precede other arguments on the command
89              line. Command names are optional.
90

FILES

92       /proc     location of the proc file system
93

KNOWN BUGS

95       Killing by file only works for executables that are  kept  open  during
96       execution, i.e. impure executables can't be killed this way.
97
98       Be  warned  that typing killall name may not have the desired effect on
99       non-Linux systems, especially when done by a privileged user.
100
101       killall -w doesn't detect if a process disappears and is replaced by  a
102       new process with the same PID between scans.
103
104       If  processes  change their name, killall may not be able to match them
105       correctly.
106

AUTHORS

108       Werner Almesberger <werner@almesberger.net> wrote the original  version
109       of  psmisc.  Since version 20 Craig Small <csmall@small.dropbear.id.au>
110       can be blamed.
111

SEE ALSO

113       kill(1), fuser(1), pgrep(1), pidof(1), pkill(1), ps(1), kill(2).
114
115
116
117Linux                             2007-08-09                        KILLALL(1)
Impressum