1XKILL(1) General Commands Manual XKILL(1)
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6 xkill - kill a client by its X resource
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9 xkill [-display displayname] [-id resource] [-button number] [-frame]
10 [-all] [-version]
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13 Xkill is a utility for forcing the X server to close connections to
14 clients. This program is very dangerous, but is useful for aborting
15 programs that have displayed undesired windows on a user's screen. If
16 no resource identifier is given with -id, xkill will display a special
17 cursor as a prompt for the user to select a window to be killed. If a
18 pointer button is pressed over a non-root window, the server will close
19 its connection to the client that created the window.
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22 -display displayname
23 This option specifies the name of the X server to contact.
24 -id resource
26 This option specifies the X identifier for the resource whose
27 creator is to be aborted. If no resource is specified, xkill
28 will display a special cursor with which you should select a
29 window to be kill.
30 -button number
32 This option specifies the number of pointer button that should
33 be used in selecting a window to kill. If the word "any" is
34 specified, any button on the pointer may be used. By default,
35 the first button in the pointer map (which is usually the left‐
36 most button) is used.
37 -all This option indicates that all clients with top-level windows
39 on the screen should be killed. Xkill will ask you to select
40 the root window with each of the currently defined buttons to
41 give you several chances to abort. Use of this option is
42 highly discouraged.
43 -frame This option indicates that xkill should ignore the standard
45 conventions for finding top-level client windows (which are
46 typically nested inside a window manager window), and simply
47 believe that you want to kill direct children of the root.
48 -version
50 This option makes xkill print its version and exit without
51 killing anything.
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54 This command does not provide any warranty that the application whose
55 connection to the X server is closed will abort nicely, or even abort
56 at all. All this command does is to close the connection to the X
57 server. Many existing applications do indeed abort when their connec‐
58 tion to the X server is closed, but some can choose to continue.
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61 Button Specifies a specific pointer button number or the word "any" to
62 use when selecting windows.
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65 X(7), xwininfo(1), XKillClient(3), XGetPointerMapping(3), KillClient in
66 the X Protocol Specification
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69 Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium
70 Dana Chee, Bellcore
71X Version 11 xkill 1.0.4 XKILL(1)