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PKILL(1)		  BSD General Commands Manual		      PKILL(1)

NAME
     pgrep, pkill -- find or signal processes by name

SYNOPSIS
     pgrep [-Sfilnovx] [-F pidfile] [-G	gid] [-M core] [-N system] [-P ppid]
	   [-U uid] [-d	delim] [-g pgrp] [-j jid] [-s sid] [-t tty] [-u	euid]
	   pattern ...
     pkill [-signal] [-finovx] [-F pidfile] [-G	gid] [-M core] [-N system]
	   [-P ppid] [-U uid] [-g pgrp]	[-j jid] [-s sid] [-t tty] [-u euid]
	   pattern ...

DESCRIPTION
     The pgrep command searches	the process table on the running system	and
     prints the	process	IDs of all processes that match	the criteria given on
     the command line.

     The pkill command searches	the process table on the running system	and
     signals all processes that	match the criteria given on the	command	line.

     The following options are available:

     -F	pidfile	 Restrict matches to a process whose PID is stored in the
		 pidfile file.

     -G	gid	 Restrict matches to processes with a real group ID in the
		 comma-separated list gid.

     -M	core	 Extract values	associated with	the name list from the speci-
		 fied core instead of the currently running system.

     -N	system	 Extract the name list from the	specified system instead of
		 the default, which is the kernel image	the system has booted
		 from.

     -P	ppid	 Restrict matches to processes with a parent process ID	in the
		 comma-separated list ppid.

     -S		 Search	also in	system processes (kernel threads).

     -U	uid	 Restrict matches to processes with a real user	ID in the
		 comma-separated list uid.

     -d	delim	 Specify a delimiter to	be printed between each	process	ID.
		 The default is	a newline.  This option	can only be used with
		 the pgrep command.

     -f		 Match against full argument lists.  The default is to match
		 against process names.

     -g	pgrp	 Restrict matches to processes with a process group ID in the
		 comma-separated list pgrp.  The value zero is taken to	mean
		 the process group ID of the running pgrep or pkill command.

     -i		 Ignore	case distinctions in both the process table and	the
		 supplied pattern.

     -j	jid	 Restrict matches to processes inside jails with a jail	ID in
		 the comma-separated list jid.	The value zero is taken	to
		 mean any jail ID.

     -l		 Long output.  Print the process name in addition to the
		 process ID for	each matching process.	If used	in conjunction
		 with -f, print	the process ID and the full argument list for
		 each matching process.	 This option can only be used with the
		 pgrep command.

     -n		 Select	only the newest	(most recently started)	of the match-
		 ing processes.

     -o		 Select	only the oldest	(least recently	started) of the	match-
		 ing processes.

     -s	sid	 Restrict matches to processes with a session ID in the	comma-
		 separated list	sid.  The value	zero is	taken to mean the ses-
		 sion ID of the	running	pgrep or pkill command.

     -t	tty	 Restrict matches to processes associated with a terminal in
		 the comma-separated list tty.	Terminal names may be of the
		 form ttyxx or the shortened form xx.  A single	dash (`-')
		 matches processes not associated with a terminal.

     -u	euid	 Restrict matches to processes with an effective user ID in
		 the comma-separated list euid.

     -v		 Reverse the sense of the matching; display processes that do
		 not match the given criteria.

     -x		 Require an exact match	of the process name, or	argument list
		 if -f is given.  The default is to match any substring.

     -signal	 A non-negative	decimal	number or symbolic signal name speci-
		 fying the signal to be	sent instead of	the default TERM.
		 This option is	valid only when	given as the first argument to
		 pkill.

     If	any pattern operands are specified, they are used as regular expres-
     sions to match the	command	name or	full argument list of each process.
     If	the -f option is not specified,	then the pattern will attempt to match
     the command name.	However, presently FreeBSD will	only keep track	of the
     first 19 characters of the	command	name for each process.	Attempts to
     match any characters after	the first 19 of	a command name will quietly
     fail.

     Note that a running pgrep or pkill	process	will never consider itself nor
     system processes (kernel threads) as a potential match.

EXIT STATUS
     The pgrep and pkill utilities return one of the following values upon
     exit:

     0	     One or more processes were	matched.

     1	     No	processes were matched.

     2	     Invalid options were specified on the command line.

     3	     An	internal error occurred.

SEE ALSO
     kill(1), killall(1), ps(1), kill(2), sigaction(2),	re_format(7)

HISTORY
     The pkill and pgrep utilities first appeared in NetBSD 1.6.  They are
     modelled after utilities of the same name that appeared in	Sun Solaris 7.
     They made their first appearance in FreeBSD 5.3.

AUTHORS
     Andrew Doran <ad@NetBSD.org>

BSD				March 20, 2005				   BSD

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXIT STATUS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS

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