Kill processes by name.
Syntax
killall [-delmsvz] [-help] [-u user] [-t tty] [-c procname] [-SIGNAL] [procname ...]
Key
-d | -v Be more verbose about what will be done. For a single
-d option, a list of the processes that will be sent
the signal will be printed, or a message indicating
that no matching processes have been found.
-e Use the effective user ID instead of the (default) real
user ID for matching processes specified with the -u option.
-help Give a help on the command usage and exit.
-l List the names of the available signals and exit, like in kill.
-m Match the argument procname as a (case sensitive) regular expression
against the names of processes found.
CAUTION! This is dangerous, a single dot will match any process running
under the real UID of the caller.
-s Show only what would be done, but do not send any signal.
-SIGNAL Send a different signal instead of the default TERM.
The signal can be specified either as a name (with or without
a leading SIG), or numerically.
-u user Limit potentially matching processes to those belonging
to the specified user.
-t tty Limit potentially matching processes to those running
on the specified tty.
-c procname
When used with the -u or -t flags, limit potentially matching
processes to those matching the specified procname.
-z Do not skip zombies. This should not have any effect except to print a
few error messages if there are zombie processes that match the specified pattern.
Sending a signal to all processes with uid XYZ is already supported by kill. So use kill for this job (e.g. $ kill -TERM -1 or as root $ echo kill -TERM -1 | su -m user)
Common Kill Signals Signal name Signal value Effect SIGHUP 1 Hangup SIGINT 2 Interrupt from keyboard SIGQUIT 3 Quit SIGABRT 6 Cancel SIGKILL 9 Kill signal SIGTERM 15 Termination signal - allow an orderly shutdown SIGSTOP 17,19,23 Stop the process
0 Success
1 No matching process has been found or not all processes have been signalled successfully.
2 Command error.
Examples
Check if the process ss64 is running:
$ ps -aef | grep ss64
If so, kill it:
$ killall ss64
Kill two processes at once:
$ killall process1 p
Flush the DNS cache, the mDNSResponder will automatically restart.
# macOS 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9, 10.10.4 and above:
$ sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
# for very old (pre 2009) versions of macOS see dscacheutil
# Tip: You can use an alias to save remembering long commands:
$ alias flushdns='sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder'
“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals.
It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings” ~ Anais Nin
ctrl+z / ctrl+c - Suspend/Interrupt a program.
ps - List running processes (returns PID).
pkill - Kill processes by a full or partial name.
kill - Kill a process by specifying its PID.
sigaction(2).
lsof - List open files.