killall(1)

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] [-o,--older-than TIME] [-q,--quiet] [-r,--regexp]
11       [-s,--signal signal] [-u,--user user] [-v,--verbose] [-w,--wait]
12       [-y,--younger-than TIME] [-I,--ignore-case] [-V,--version] [--] name
13       ...
14       killall -l
15       killall -V,--version
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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.
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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 non-
31       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 is
39              longer than 15 characters, the  full  name  may  be  unavailable
40              (i.e. it is swapped out). In this case, killall will kill every‐
41              thing that matches within the first 15 characters. With -e, such
42              entries  are skipped.  killall prints a message for each skipped
43              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       -o, --older-than
60              Match only processes that are older (started  before)  the  time
61              specified.   The  time  is specified as a float then a unit. The
62              units are  s,m,h,d,w,M,y  for  seconds,  minutes,  hours,  days,
63              weeks, Months and years respectively.
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65       -q, --quiet
66              Do not complain if no processes were killed.
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68       -r, --regexp
69              Interpret  process  name  pattern as an extended regular expres‐
70              sion.
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72       -s, --signal
73              Send this signal instead of SIGTERM.
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75       -u, --user
76              Kill only processes the specified user owns. Command  names  are
77              optional.
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79       -v, --verbose
80              Report if the signal was successfully sent.
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82       -V, --version
83              Display version information.
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85       -w, --wait
86              Wait  for  all  killed processes to die. killall checks once per
87              second if any of the  killed  processes  still  exist  and  only
88              returns if none are left.  Note that killall may wait forever if
89              the signal was ignored, had no effect, or if the  process  stays
90              in zombie state.
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92       -y, --younger-than
93              Match  only  processes  that  are older (started after) the time
94              specified.  The time is specified as a float then  a  unit.  The
95              units  are  s,m,h,d,w,M,y  for  seconds,  minutes,  hours, days,
96              weeks, Months and years respectively.
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98       -Z, --context
99              (SELinux Only) Specify security  context:  kill  only  processes
100              having  security  context that match with given expended regular
101              expression pattern. Must precede other arguments on the  command
102              line. Command names are optional.
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FILES

105       /proc     location of the proc file system
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KNOWN BUGS

108       Killing  by  file  only works for executables that are kept open during
109       execution, i.e. impure executables can't be killed this way.
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111       Be warned that typing killall name may not have the desired  effect  on
112       non-Linux systems, especially when done by a privileged user.
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114       killall  -w doesn't detect if a process disappears and is replaced by a
115       new process with the same PID between scans.
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117       If processes change their name, killall may not be able to  match  them
118       correctly.
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AUTHORS

121       Werner  Almesberger <werner@almesberger.net> wrote the original version
122       of psmisc. Since version 20 Craig  Small  <csmall@small.dropbear.id.au>
123       can be blamed.
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