killall

KILLALL(1)                       User Commands                      KILLALL(1)

NAME
       killall - kill processes by name

SYNOPSIS
       killall [-Z, --context pattern] [-e, --exact] [-g, --process-group]
       [-i, --interactive] [-n, --ns PID] [-o, --older-than TIME]
       [-q, --quiet] [-r, --regexp] [-s, --signal SIGNAL, -SIGNAL] [-u, --user
       user] [-v, --verbose] [-w, --wait] [-y, --younger-than TIME] [-I, --ig-
       nore-case] [-V, --version] [--] name ...
       killall -l
       killall -V, --version

DESCRIPTION
       killall  sends  a  signal to all processes running any of the specified
       commands.  If no signal name is specified, SIGTERM is sent.

       Signals can be specified either by name (e.g.  -HUP or -SIGHUP)  or  by
       number (e.g.  -1) or by option -s.

       If  the command name is not regular expression (option -r) and contains
       a slash (/), processes executing that particular file will be  selected
       for killing, independent of their name.

       killall  returns  a  zero  return code if at least one process has been
       killed for each listed command, or no commands were listed and at least
       one  process  matched  the  -u and -Z search criteria.  killall returns
       non-zero otherwise.

       A killall process never kills itself (but may kill other  killall  pro-
       cesses).

OPTIONS
       -e, --exact
              Require  an  exact match for very long names.  If a command name
              is longer than 15 characters, the full name may  be  unavailable
              (i.e.   it is swapped out).  In this case, killall will kill ev-
              erything that matches within the first 15 characters.  With  -e,
              such  entries  are  skipped.   killall prints a message for each
              skipped entry if -v is specified in addition to -e,

       -I, --ignore-case
              Do case insensitive process name match.

       -g, --process-group
              Kill the process group to which the process belongs.   The  kill
              signal  is  only sent once per group, even if multiple processes
              belonging to the same process group were found.

       -i, --interactive
              Interactively ask for confirmation before killing.

       -l, --list
              List all known signal names.

       -n, --ns
              Match against the PID namespace of the given PID. The default is
              to match against all namespaces.

       -o, --older-than
              Match  only  processes  that are older (started before) the time
              specified.  The time is specified as a float then a  unit.   The
              units  are  s,m,h,d,w,M,y  for  seconds,  minutes,  hours, days,
              weeks, Months and years respectively.

       -q, --quiet
              Do not complain if no processes were killed.

       -r, --regexp
              Interpret process name pattern as a POSIX extended  regular  ex-
              pression, per regex(3).

       -s, --signal, -SIGNAL
              Send this signal instead of SIGTERM.

       -u, --user
              Kill  only processes the specified user owns.  Command names are
              optional.

       -v, --verbose
              Report if the signal was successfully sent.

       -V, --version
              Display version information.

       -w, --wait
              Wait for all killed processes to die.  killall checks  once  per
              second  if  any of the killed processes still exist and only re-
              turns if none are left.  Note that killall may wait  forever  if
              the  signal  was ignored, had no effect, or if the process stays
              in zombie state.

       -y, --younger-than
              Match only processes that are younger (started after)  the  time
              specified.   The  time is specified as a float then a unit.  The
              units are  s,m,h,d,w,M,y  for  seconds,  minutes,  hours,  days,
              weeks, Months and years respectively.

       -Z, --context
              (SELinux  Only)  Specify  security  context: kill only processes
              having security context that match with given  extended  regular
              expression pattern.  Must precede other arguments on the command
              line.  Command names are optional.

FILES
       /proc  location of the proc file system

KNOWN BUGS
       Killing by file only works for executables that are  kept  open  during
       execution, i.e. impure executables can't be killed this way.

       Be  warned  that typing killall name may not have the desired effect on
       non-Linux systems, especially when done by a privileged user.

       killall -w doesn't detect if a process disappears and is replaced by  a
       new process with the same PID between scans.

       If  processes  change their name, killall may not be able to match them
       correctly.

       killall has a limit of names that can be specified on the command line.
       This  figure is the size of an unsigned long multiplied by 8.  For most
       32 bit systems the limit is 32 and similarly for a 64  bit  system  the
       limit is usually 64.

SEE ALSO
       kill(1),   fuser(1),  pgrep(1),  pidof(1),  pkill(1),  ps(1),  kill(2),
       regex(3).

psmisc                            2018-05-06                        KILLALL(1)