1KILLALL(1) User Commands KILLALL(1)
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6 killall - kill processes by name
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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
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 Signals can be specified either by name (e.g. -HUP) or by number (e.g.
21 -1) or by option -s.
22 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 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 A killall process never kills itself (but may kill other killall pro‐
33 cesses).
34
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 -I, --ignore-case
45 Do case insensitive process name match.
46 -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 -i, --interactive
53 Interactively ask for confirmation before killing.
54 -l, --list
56 List all known signal names.
57 -q, --quiet
59 Do not complain if no processes were killed.
60 -r, --regexp
62 Interpret process name pattern as an extended regular expres‐
63 sion.
64 -s, --signal
66 Send this signal instead of SIGTERM.
67 -u, --user
69 Kill only processes the specified user owns. Command names are
70 optional.
71 -v, --verbose
73 Report if the signal was successfully sent.
74 -V, --version
76 Display version information.
77 -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 -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
92 /proc location of the proc file system
93
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 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 killall -w doesn't detect if a process disappears and is replaced by a
102 new process with the same PID between scans.
103 If processes change their name, killall may not be able to match them
105 correctly.
106
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
113 kill(1), fuser(1), pgrep(1), pidof(1), pkill(1), ps(1), kill(2).
114Linux 2004-11-09 KILLALL(1)