.\" $OpenBSD: pkill.1,v 1.14 2009/06/07 22:16:43 jmc Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: pkill.1,v 1.8 2003/02/14 15:59:18 grant Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2002 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation .\" by Andrew Doran. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE NETBSD FOUNDATION, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS .\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED .\" TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR .\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR CONTRIBUTORS .\" BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR .\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF .\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS .\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN .\" CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) .\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE .\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: June 7 2009 $ .Dt PKILL 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm pgrep , pkill .Nd find or signal processes by name .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm pgrep .Op Fl flnovx .Op Fl d Ar delim .Op Fl G Ar gid .Op Fl g Ar pgrp .Op Fl P Ar ppid .Op Fl s Ar sid .Op Fl t Ar tty .Op Fl U Ar uid .Op Fl u Ar euid .Op Ar pattern ... .Nm pkill .Op Fl Ar signal .Op Fl fnovx .Op Fl G Ar gid .Op Fl g Ar pgrp .Op Fl P Ar ppid .Op Fl s Ar sid .Op Fl t Ar tty .Op Fl U Ar uid .Op Fl u Ar euid .Op Ar pattern ... .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm pgrep command searches the process table on the running system and prints the process IDs of all processes that match the criteria given on the command line. .Pp The .Nm pkill command searches the process table on the running system and signals all processes that match the criteria given on the command line. .Pp The following options are available: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl d Ar delim Specify a delimiter to be printed between each process ID. The default is a newline. This option can only be used with the .Nm pgrep command. .It Fl f Match against full argument lists. The default is to match against process names. .It Fl G Ar gid Restrict matches to processes with a real group ID in the comma-separated list .Ar gid . .It Fl g Ar pgrp Restrict matches to processes with a process group ID in the comma-separated list .Ar pgrp . The value zero is taken to mean the process group ID of the running .Nm pgrep or .Nm pkill command. .It Fl l Long output. Print the process name in addition to the process ID for each matching process. If used in conjunction with .Fl f , print the process ID and the full argument list for each matching process. This option can only be used with the .Nm pgrep command. .It Fl n Match only the most recently created (newest) process, if any. Cannot be used in conjunction with .Fl o . .It Fl o Match only the least recently created (oldest) process, if any. Cannot be used in conjunction with .Fl n . .It Fl P Ar ppid Restrict matches to processes with a parent process ID in the comma-separated list .Ar ppid . .It Fl s Ar sid Restrict matches to processes with a session ID in the comma-separated list .Ar sid . The value zero is taken to mean the session ID of the running .Nm pgrep or .Nm pkill command. .It Fl t Ar tty Restrict matches to processes associated with a terminal in the comma-separated list .Ar tty . Terminal names may be of the form .Sq ttyxx or the shortened form .Sq xx . A single dash .Pq Sq - matches processes not associated with a terminal. .It Fl U Ar uid Restrict matches to processes with a real user ID in the comma-separated list .Ar uid . .It Fl u Ar euid Restrict matches to processes with an effective user ID in the comma-separated list .Ar euid . .It Fl v Reverse the sense of the matching; display or signal processes that do not match the given criteria. .It Fl x Require an exact match of the process name, or argument list if .Fl f is given. The default is to match any substring. .It Fl Ar signal A non-negative decimal number or symbolic signal name specifying the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM. This option is valid only when given as the first argument to .Nm pkill . .El .Pp Note that a running .Nm pgrep or .Nm pkill process will never consider itself or system processes (kernel threads) as a potential match. .Pp .Nm pgrep and .Nm pkill return one of the following values upon exit: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact .It 0 One or more processes were matched. .It 1 No processes were matched. .It 2 Invalid options were specified on the command line. .It 3 An internal error occurred. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr grep 1 , .Xr kill 1 , .Xr ps 1 , .Xr kill 2 , .Xr sigaction 2 , .Xr re_format 7 .Sh HISTORY .Nm pkill and .Nm pgrep first appeared in .Ox 3.5 . They are modelled after utilities of the same name that appeared in Sun Solaris 7. .Sh AUTHORS .An Andrew Doran .Aq ad@NetBSD.org .