MAN page from openSUSE Tumbleweed psmisc-23.7-5.1.x86_64.rpm

KILLALL

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 2023-06-17
Index

NAME

killall - kill processes by name

SYNOPSIS

killall[-Z, --contextpattern][-e, --exact][-g, --process-group][-i, --interactive][-n, --nsPID][-o, --older-thanTIME][-q, --quiet][-r, --regexp][-s, --signalSIGNAL, -SIGNAL][-u, --useruser][-v, --verbose][-w, --wait][-y, --younger-thanTIME][-I, --ignore-case][-V, --version][--]name ...
killall-l, --list
killall-V, --version

DESCRIPTION

killallsends 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.-HUPor-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.

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

Akillallprocess never kills itself (but may kill otherkillallprocesses).

OPTIONS

-e, --exact: Require an exact match for very long names. If a command name islonger than 15 characters, the full name may be unavailable (i.e. itis swapped out). In this case,killallwill kill everything that matches within the first 15 characters. With-e,such entries are skipped.killallprints a message for each skipped entryif-vis 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 signalis only sent once per group, even if multiple processes belonging tothe 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 matchagainst all namespaces.
-o, --older-than: Match only processes that are older (started before) the timespecified. The time is specified as a float then a unit. The unitsare s,m,h,d,w,M,y for seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months andyears respectively.
-q, --quiet: Do not complain if no processes were killed.
-r, --regexp: Interpret process name pattern as a POSIX extended regular expression, perregex(3).
-s, --signal, -SIGNAL: Send this signal instead of SIGTERM.
-u, --user: Kill only processes the specified user owns. Command names areoptional.
-v, --verbose: Report if the signal was successfully sent.
-V, --version: Display version information.
-w, --wait: Wait for all killed processes to die.killallchecks once per second if any of the killed processes still exist andonly returns if none are left. Note thatkillallmay wait forever if the signal was ignored, had no effect, or if theprocess stays in zombie state.
-y, --younger-than: Match only processes that are younger (started after) the timespecified. The time is specified as a float then a unit. The unitsare s,m,h,d,w,M,y for seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, Months andyears respectively.
-Z, --context: Specify security context: kill only processes havingsecurity context that match with given extended regular expressionpattern. Must precede other arguments on the command line. Commandnames are optional.

FILES

/proc: location of the proc file system

KNOWN BUGS

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

Be warned that typingkillallnamemay not have the desired effect on non-Linux systems, especially whendone by a privileged user.

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

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

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

This document was created byman2html,using the manual pages.