KILLALL(1)			User Commands			   KILLALL(1)



NAME
       killall - kill processes by name

SYNOPSIS
       killall [-c,--context] [-e,--exact] [-g,--process-group] [-i,--inter-
       active] [-q,--quiet] [-s,--signal signal] [-v,--verbose] [-w,--wait]
       [-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 by number (e.g.
       -1).

       If  the	command	 name  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. 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,

       -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.

       -q, --quiet
	      Do not complain if no processes were killed.

       -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.

       -Z     (SELinux Only) Specify security context:	kill  only  processes
	      with  given  security context.  Must precede other arguments on
	      the command line.

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.

AUTHORS
       Werner Almesberger  wrote the original version
       of psmisc.  Since version 20 Craig Small 
       can be blamed.

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



Linux			      September 26, 2003		   KILLALL(1)

UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page:

1. kill
2. file
3. at
4. which