KILLALL linux command manual

KILLALL(1)                      User Commands                      KILLALL(1)



NAME
       killall - kill processes by name

SYNOPSIS
       killall [-c,--context] [-e,--exact] [-g,--process-group] [-i,--inter-
       active] [-q,--quiet] [-s,--signal signal] [-v,--verbose] [-w,--wait]
       [-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 by number (e.g.
       -1).

       If  the  command  name  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. 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
              everything 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,

       -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.

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

       -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
              returns 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.

       -Z     (SELinux Only) Specify security context:  kill  only  processes
              with  given  security context.  Must precede other arguments on
              the command line.

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.

AUTHORS
       Werner Almesberger  wrote the original version
       of psmisc.  Since version 20 Craig Small 
       can be blamed.

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



Linux                         September 26, 2003                   KILLALL(1)