{"id":3104,"date":"2014-01-14T19:08:25","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T19:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.shineservers.com\/?p=2405"},"modified":"2014-01-14T19:08:25","modified_gmt":"2014-01-14T19:08:25","slug":"manage-processes-killall-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shineservers.com\/2014\/01\/14\/manage-processes-killall-kill\/","title":{"rendered":"Manage Processes with killall and kill"},"content":{"rendered":"

killall<\/tt>\u00a0is a tool for ending running processes on your system based on name. In contrast,\u00a0kill<\/tt>\u00a0terminates processes based on process ID number or “PID.”\u00a0kill<\/tt>\u00a0and\u00a0killall<\/tt>can also send specific system signals to processes. Use\u00a0killall<\/tt>\u00a0and\u00a0kill<\/tt>\u00a0in conjunction with tools including\u00a0ps<\/tt>\u00a0to manage processes and end processes that have become stuck or unresponsive when necessary.<\/p>\n

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Usage<\/h1>\n
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killall<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0killall<\/tt>\u00a0command takes the following form:<\/p>\n

killall [process name]<\/pre>\n
Replace “[process name]<\/tt>” with the name of any process that you wish to terminate.\u00a0killall<\/tt>\u00a0will terminate all programs that match the name specified. Without arguments,killall<\/tt>\u00a0sends “SIGTERM<\/tt>“, or signal number 15, which terminates running processes that match the name specified. You may specify a different signal using the “-s<\/tt>” option as follows:<\/p>\n
killall -s 9 [process name]<\/pre>\n
This sends the “SIGKILL<\/tt>” signal which is more successful at killing some particularly unruly processes. You may also specify signals in one of the following formats:<\/p>\n
killall -KILL [process name]\nkillall -SIGKILL [process name]\nkillall -9 [process name]<\/pre>\n
The above group of commands are equivalent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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kill<\/h2>\n
The\u00a0kill<\/tt>\u00a0command terminates individual processes as specified by their process ID numbers or “PIDs.” Commands take the following form:<\/p>\n
kill [PID]<\/pre>\n
This sends “SIGTERM<\/tt>” to the PID specified. You may specify multiple PIDs on the command line to terminate processes with “kill<\/tt>“. You may also send alternate system signals with kill. The following examples all send the “SIGKILL<\/tt>” signal to the PID specified:<\/p>\n
kill -s KILL [PID]\nkill -KILL [PID]<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
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System Signals<\/h2>\n
You may use\u00a0kill<\/tt>\u00a0and\u00a0killall<\/tt>\u00a0to send any of the following signals.<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. SIGHUP<\/tt><\/li>\n
  2. SIGINT<\/tt><\/li>\n
  3. SIGQUIT<\/tt><\/li>\n
  4. SIGILL<\/tt><\/li>\n
  5. SIGTRAP<\/tt><\/li>\n
  6. SIGABRT<\/tt><\/li>\n
  7. SIGIOT<\/tt><\/li>\n
  8. SIGFPE<\/tt><\/li>\n
  9. SIGKILL<\/tt><\/li>\n
  10. SIGUSR1<\/tt><\/li>\n
  11. SIGSEGV<\/tt><\/li>\n
  12. SIGUSR2<\/tt><\/li>\n
  13. SIGPIPE<\/tt><\/li>\n
  14. SIGALRM<\/tt><\/li>\n
  15. SIGTERM<\/tt><\/li>\n
  16. SIGSTKFLT<\/tt><\/li>\n
  17. SIGCHLD<\/tt><\/li>\n
  18. SIGCONT<\/tt><\/li>\n
  19. SIGSTOP<\/tt><\/li>\n
  20. SIGSTP<\/tt><\/li>\n
  21. SIGTTIN<\/tt><\/li>\n
  22. SIGTTOU<\/tt><\/li>\n
  23. SIGURG<\/tt><\/li>\n
  24. SIGXCPU<\/tt><\/li>\n
  25. SIGXFSZ<\/tt><\/li>\n
  26. SIGVTALRM<\/tt><\/li>\n
  27. SIGPROF<\/tt><\/li>\n
  28. SIGWINCH<\/tt><\/li>\n
  29. SIGIO<\/tt>\u00a0and\u00a0SIGPOLL<\/tt><\/li>\n
  30. SIGPWR<\/tt><\/li>\n
  31. SIGSYS<\/tt><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    Issue one of the following commands to get a list of all of the available signals:<\/p>\n
    kill -l\nkillall -l<\/pre>\n
    If you need to convert a signal name into a signal number, or a signal number into a signal name consider the following examples:<\/p>\n
    $ kill -l 9\nKILL$ kill -l kill\n9<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    \n
    Finding Running Processes<\/h1>\n
    You may use a utility like\u00a0htop <\/using-linux\/administration-basics#monitor_processes__memory__and_cpu_usage_with_htop> or “top`<\/cite>\u00a0to view a real time list of process and their consumption of system resources. You may also use the\u00a0ps<\/tt>\u00a0command to view processes that are currently running and their PIDs.<\/p>\n
    $ ps aux | grep \"emacs\"\nsquire  3896  0.0  2.2  56600 44468 ?        Ss   Sep30   4:29 emacs\nsquire 22843  0.0  0.0   3900   840 pts\/11   S+   08:49   0:00 grep emacs<\/pre>\n
    This command filters the list of all processes that are currently running for the string “emacs<\/tt>” using\u00a0grep. The number listed in the second column is the PID, which is\u00a03896<\/tt>\u00a0in the case of the “emacs<\/tt>” process. The\u00a0grep<\/tt>\u00a0process will always match itself for a simple search, as in the second result. To view a hierarchical tree of all running processes, issue the following command:<\/p>\n
    ps auxf<\/pre>\n
    Once you have obtained the PID or process name, use\u00a0killall<\/tt>\u00a0or\u00a0kill<\/tt>\u00a0to terminate the process as above.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    \n
    Verifying Process Termination<\/h1>\n
    The “-w<\/tt>” option to the\u00a0killall<\/tt>\u00a0command causes\u00a0killall<\/tt>\u00a0to wait until the process terminates before exiting. Consider the following command:<\/p>\n
    killall -w irssi<\/pre>\n
    This command issues the “SIGTERM<\/tt>” system signal to the process with a name that matches “irssi<\/tt>“.“killall“ will wait until the matched processes have ended. If no process matches the name specified,\u00a0killall<\/tt>\u00a0returns an error message, as below:<\/p>\n
    $ killall -w irssi\nirssi: no process found<\/pre>\n
     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    Related articles across the web<\/h3>\n