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] [-I, --ig‐
13       nore-case] [-V, --version] [--] name ...
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
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 ev‐
41              erything that matches within the first 15 characters.  With  -e,
42              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. The default is
61              to match against all namespaces.
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63       -o, --older-than
64              Match  only  processes  that are older (started before) the time
65              specified.  The time is specified as a float then a  unit.   The
66              units  are  s,m,h,d,w,M,y  for  seconds,  minutes,  hours, days,
67              weeks, months and years respectively.
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69       -q, --quiet
70              Do not complain if no processes were killed.
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72       -r, --regexp
73              Interpret process name pattern as a POSIX extended  regular  ex‐
74              pression, per regex(3).
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76       -s, --signal, -SIGNAL
77              Send this signal instead of SIGTERM.
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79       -u, --user
80              Kill  only processes the specified user owns.  Command names are
81              optional.
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83       -v, --verbose
84              Report if the signal was successfully sent.
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86       -V, --version
87              Display version information.
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89       -w, --wait
90              Wait for all killed processes to die.  killall checks  once  per
91              second  if  any of the killed processes still exist and only re‐
92              turns if none are left.  Note that killall may wait  forever  if
93              the  signal  was ignored, had no effect, or if the process stays
94              in zombie state.
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96       -y, --younger-than
97              Match only processes that are younger (started after)  the  time
98              specified.   The  time is specified as a float then a unit.  The
99              units are  s,m,h,d,w,M,y  for  seconds,  minutes,  hours,  days,
100              weeks, Months and years respectively.
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102       -Z, --context
103              Specify  security  context:  kill only processes having security
104              context that match with given extended regular  expression  pat‐
105              tern.   Must  precede other arguments on the command line.  Com‐
106              mand names are optional.
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FILES

109       /proc  location of the proc file system
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KNOWN BUGS

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

130       kill(1),   fuser(1),  pgrep(1),  pidof(1),  pkill(1),  ps(1),  kill(2),
131       regex(3).
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135psmisc                            2021-01-11                        KILLALL(1)
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