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] [-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 an extended regular expres-
	      sion.

       -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 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).



psmisc				   2012-7-28			    KILLALL(1)