pidof

List all process IDs with given name

$ pidof bash

$ pidof -s bash

$ pidof -x script.py

$ kill $(pidof name)

$ pidof -t process_name

pidof [-s] [-c] [-q] [-w] [-x] [-o omitpid] [-t] [-S separator] program...

pidof finds the process IDs (PIDs) of the named programs and prints them on standard output. It is useful for scripting and identifying running processes by name.

-s

Single shot - only return one PID

Only return process IDs running with the same root directory

Quiet mode - suppress output and only set exit status

Show processes without visible command line (e.g., kernel threads)

Also return PIDs of shells running the named scripts

Omit processes with the specified PID; use %PPID for parent process

Show thread IDs instead of PIDs

Use specified separator between PIDs (default is space)

Exit status 0 means at least one matching program was found; exit status 1 means no matching program was found. When using -x for scripts, the script name must match exactly.

pidof is part of the sysvinit package and provides a way to find process IDs by name, complementing commands like pgrep.

pgrep(1), pkill(1), killall(1), ps(1)