Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
KILLALL(1)			 User Commands			    KILLALL(1)

NAME
       killall - kill processes	by name

SYNOPSIS
       killall [-Z,--context pattern] [-e,--exact] [-g,--process-group]
       [-i,--interactive] [-o,--older-than TIME] [-q,--quiet] [-r,--regexp]
       [-s,--signal signal] [-u,--user user] [-v,--verbose] [-w,--wait]
       [-y,--younger-than TIME]	[-I,--ignore-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
       processes).

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	every-
	      thing 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.

       -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	an  extended  regular  expres-
	      sion.

       -s, --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  expended  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.

AUTHORS
       Werner Almesberger <werner@almesberger.net> wrote the original  version
       of  psmisc.  Since  version  20	Craig Small <csmall@enc.com.au>	can be
       blamed.

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

Linux				  2011-02-22			    KILLALL(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=killall&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.0>

home | help