1KILLALL(1)                       User Commands                      KILLALL(1)
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NAME

6       killall - kill processes by name
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SYNOPSIS

9       killall [-Z, --context pattern] [-e, --exact] [-g, --process-group]
10       [-i, --interactive] [-n, --ns PID] [-o, --older-than TIME]
11       [-q, --quiet] [-r, --regexp] [-s, --signal SIGNAL, -SIGNAL] [-u, --user
12       user] [-v, --verbose] [-w, --wait] [-y, --younger-than TIME]
13       [-I, --ignore-case] [-V, --version] [--] name ...
14       killall -l
15       killall -V, --version
16

DESCRIPTION

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

37       -e, --exact
38              Require  an  exact match for very long names.  If a command name
39              is longer than 15 characters, the full name may  be  unavailable
40              (i.e.   it  is  swapped  out).   In this case, killall will kill
41              everything that matches within the first  15  characters.   With
42              -e, such entries are skipped.  killall prints a message for each
43              skipped entry if -v is specified in addition to -e,
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45       -I, --ignore-case
46              Do case insensitive process name match.
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48       -g, --process-group
49              Kill the process group to which the process belongs.   The  kill
50              signal  is  only sent once per group, even if multiple processes
51              belonging to the same process group were found.
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53       -i, --interactive
54              Interactively ask for confirmation before killing.
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56       -l, --list
57              List all known signal names.
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59       -n, --ns
60              Match against the PID namespace of the given PID. Use 0 to match
61              against all namespaces. The default is to match against the cur‐
62              rent PID namespace.
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64       -o, --older-than
65              Match only processes that are older (started  before)  the  time
66              specified.   The  time is specified as a float then a unit.  The
67              units are  s,m,h,d,w,M,y  for  seconds,  minutes,  hours,  days,
68              weeks, Months and years respectively.
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70       -q, --quiet
71              Do not complain if no processes were killed.
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73       -r, --regexp
74              Interpret  process  name  pattern  as  a  POSIX extended regular
75              expression, per regex(3).
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77       -s, --signal, -SIGNAL
78              Send this signal instead of SIGTERM.
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80       -u, --user
81              Kill only processes the specified user owns.  Command names  are
82              optional.
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84       -v, --verbose
85              Report if the signal was successfully sent.
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87       -V, --version
88              Display version information.
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90       -w, --wait
91              Wait  for  all killed processes to die.  killall checks once per
92              second if any of the  killed  processes  still  exist  and  only
93              returns if none are left.  Note that killall may wait forever if
94              the signal was ignored, had no effect, or if the  process  stays
95              in zombie state.
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97       -y, --younger-than
98              Match  only  processes that are younger (started after) the time
99              specified.  The time is specified as a float then a  unit.   The
100              units  are  s,m,h,d,w,M,y  for  seconds,  minutes,  hours, days,
101              weeks, Months and years respectively.
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103       -Z, --context
104              (SELinux Only) Specify security  context:  kill  only  processes
105              having  security  context that match with given extended regular
106              expression pattern.  Must precede other arguments on the command
107              line.  Command names are optional.
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FILES

110       /proc  location of the proc file system
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KNOWN BUGS

113       Killing  by  file  only works for executables that are kept open during
114       execution, i.e. impure executables can't be killed this way.
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116       Be warned that typing killall name may not have the desired  effect  on
117       non-Linux systems, especially when done by a privileged user.
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119       killall  -w doesn't detect if a process disappears and is replaced by a
120       new process with the same PID between scans.
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122       If processes change their name, killall may not be able to  match  them
123       correctly.
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125       killall has a limit of names that can be specified on the command line.
126       This figure is the size of an unsigned long multiplied by 8.  For  most
127       32  bit  systems  the limit is 32 and similarly for a 64 bit system the
128       limit is usually 64.
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SEE ALSO

131       kill(1),  fuser(1),  pgrep(1),  pidof(1),  pkill(1),  ps(1),   kill(2),
132       regex(3).
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136psmisc                            2017-06-12                        KILLALL(1)
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