KILLALL(1)			 User Commands			    KILLALL(1)



NAME
       killall - kill processes by name

SYNOPSIS
       killall [-Z,--context pattern] [-e,--exact] [-g,--process-group]
       [-i,--interactive] [-q,--quiet] [-r,--regexp] [-s,--signal signal]
       [-u,--user user] [-v,--verbose] [-w,--wait] [-I,--ignore-case]
       [-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) 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 every
	      thing 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.

       -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.

       -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 cant 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 doesnt 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.

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				  2004-11-09			    KILLALL(1)