killall(1M)                                                        killall(1M)


NAME
     killall - kill named processes

SYNOPSIS
     killall [ [-]signal ]
     killall [ -gv ] [ -k secs ] [ [-]signal ] [ pname ...]
     killall [ -gv ] [ -k secs ] [ -signame ] [ pname ...]
     killall -l

DESCRIPTION
     killall sends a signal to a set of processes or process groups specified
     by pname(s).  It is similar to kill(1), except that it allows processes
     to be specified by name and has special options used by shutdown(1M).

     When no processes are specified, killall terminates all processes that
     are not in the same process group as the caller.  This form is for use in
     shutting down the system and is only available to the superuser.

     The options to killall are:

     signal, -signal
               Specifies the signal number.  The minus (-) is required if
               pname looks like a signal number.  If no signal value is
               specified, a default of 9 (KILL) is used.

     pname     When a process is specified with pname, killall sends signal to
               all processes matching that name.  This form is available to
               all users provided that their user ID matches the real, saved,
               or effective user ID of the receiving process.  The signal
               number must be preceded by a minus (-) if pname looks like a
               signal number.

     signame   A mnemonic name for the signal can be used; see the -l option.

     -g        Causes the signal to be sent to the named processes' entire
               process group.  In this form, the signal number should be
               preceded by - in order to disambiguate it from a process name.

     -k secs   Allows the user to specify a maximum time to die for a process.
               With this option, an argument specifying the maximum number of
               seconds to wait for a process to die is given.  If after
               delivery of the specified signal (which defaults to SIGTERM
               when using the -k option), killall waits for either the process
               to die or for the time specified by secs to elapse.  If the
               process does not die in the allotted time, the process is sent
               SIGKILL.

     -l        Lists the signal names (see kill(1) for more information about
               signal naming).  For example,


                   killall 16 myproc
                    killall -16 myproc
                    killall -USR1 myproc

               are equivalent.

     -v        Reports if the signal was successfully sent.

     killall can be quite useful for killing a process without knowing its
     process ID.  It can be used to stop a run-away user program without
     having to wait for ps(1) to find its process ID.  It can be particularly
     useful in scripts, because it makes it unnecessary to run the output of
     ps(1) through grep(1) and then through sed(1) or awk(1).

FILES
     /etc/shutdown

SEE ALSO
     fuser(1M), kill(1), ps(1), shutdown(1M), signal(2).


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