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 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, 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 expression.

       -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 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 older (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 privi-
       leged 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  <wernerATalmesberger.net>  wrote  the  original  version  of  psmisc.  Since  version  20 Craig Small
       <csmallATsmall.au> can be blamed.

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



Linux                                                      2009-12-18                                                 KILLALL(1)