Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Name

killall

Synopsis

killall [options] names

Kill processes by command name. If more than one process is running the specified command, kill all of them. Treats command names that contain a / as files; kill all processes that are executing that file.

Options

-e, --exact

Require an exact match to kill very long names (i.e., longer than 15 characters). Normally, killall kills everything that matches within the first 15 characters. With -e, such entries are skipped. (Use -v to print a message for each skipped entry.)

-g, --process-group

Kill the process group to which the process belongs.

-i, --interactive

Prompt for confirmation before killing processes.

-I, --ignore-case

Ignore case when matching process names.

-l, --list

List known signal names.

-q, --quiet

Quiet; do not complain of processes not killed.

-r, --regexp

Interpret process name as an extended regular expression.

-s signal, --signal signal

Send signal to named processes. signal may be a name or a number. The most commonly used signal is 9, which terminates processes no matter what. The default signal is SIGTERM.

-u user, --user user

Kill only processes owned by the specified user.

-v, --verbose

Verbose; after killing process, report success and process ID.

-V, --version

Print version information.

-w, --wait

Wait for all killed processes to die. Note that killall may wait forever if the signal was ignored or had no effect, or if the process stays in zombie state.