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
       SIGNAL, -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
              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.

       -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 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
              Specify  security  context:  kill only processes having security context that match
              with given extended 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 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).