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, --reg-
       exp] [-s, --signal SIGNAL, -SIGNAL] [-u, --user user] [-v, --verbose]
       [-w, --wait] [-y, --younger-than TIME] [-I, --ignore-case] [-V, --ver-
       sion] [--] 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  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,

       -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  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,  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 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)
