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, -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 sig‐
       nal 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  (/),  pro‐
       cesses  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 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,

       -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, min‐
              utes, 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  expression,  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 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.

       -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, min‐
              utes, hours, days, weeks, Months and years respectively.

       -Z, --context
              (SELinux Only) Specify security context: kill only processes having  security  con‐
              text 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.

       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                                      2012-7-28                                  KILLALL(1)