pkill

Kill all processes matching a name

$ pkill [process_name]

$ pkill -x [exact_name]

$ pkill -u [username] [process_name]

$ pkill -[SIGTERM] [process_name]

$ pkill -i [pattern]

$ pkill -n [process_name]

$ pkill -o [process_name]

pkill [-signal] [-fvx] [-n|-o] [-P ppid,...] [-g pgrp,...] [-s sid,...] [-u euid,...] [-U uid,...] [-G gid,...] [-t term,...] [pattern]

pkill sends signals to processes based on their names and other attributes. Unlike kill which requires process IDs, pkill uses pattern matching to identify target processes, making it more convenient for common process management tasks.
By default, pkill sends SIGTERM (signal 15) to terminate processes gracefully. The pattern is matched against the process name (the executable name), but with -f it matches against the full command line including arguments.
The command is particularly useful in scripts and for quickly terminating processes without first looking up their PIDs using ps or pgrep. Multiple selection criteria can be combined to precisely target specific processes.

- signal, --signal signal

Signal to send (default: SIGTERM). Can be name or number

Match against the full command line, not just process name

Require exact match of the process name

Select only the most recently started matching process

Select only the oldest matching process

Match only processes whose parent is specified

Match only processes with specified effective user ID

Match only processes with specified real user ID

Match only processes in specified process group

Match only processes with specified real group ID

Match only processes on specified terminal

Case-insensitive pattern matching

Invert matching (exclude matched processes)

Pattern matching can accidentally kill unintended processes. Use pgrep with the same pattern first to verify which processes will be affected. The -f option may match the pkill command itself if not careful. Processes in uninterruptible sleep (D state) cannot be killed even with SIGKILL. Regular users can only kill their own processes.

pkill was introduced in Solaris 7 in 1998 as part of a set of process utilities alongside pgrep. It was subsequently ported to other Unix-like systems, with the Linux implementation provided by the procps (or procps-ng) package. The command has become a standard tool on modern Unix-like systems, valued for its convenience over the traditional ps | grep | kill pipeline approach.

pgrep(1), kill(1), killall(1), ps(1), top(1)