man > killall(1)

KILLALL(1)                                  User Commands                                 KILLALL(1)

NAME
       killall - kill processes by name

SYNOPSIS
       killall [-Z, --context pattern] [-e, --exact] [-g, --process-group] [-i, --interactive]
       [-n, --ns PID] [-o, --older-than TIME] [-q, --quiet] [-r, --regexp] [-s, --signal SIG‐
       NAL, -SIGNAL] [-u, --user user] [-v, --verbose] [-w, --wait] [-y, --younger-than TIME]
       [-I, --ignore-case] [-V, --version] [--] name ...
       killall -l, --list
       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 char‐
              acters,  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.

       -n, --ns
              Match against the PID namespace of the given PID. The default is to match against  all
              namespaces.

       -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 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 zom‐
              bie 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
              Specify  security context: kill only processes having security context that match with
              given extended regular expression pattern.  Must precede other arguments on  the  com‐
              mand 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,  es‐
       pecially 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 integer 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                                       2023-06-17                                   KILLALL(1)