PKILL(1) BSD Reference Manual PKILL(1)
pgrep, pkill - find or signal processes by name
pgrep [-flnvx] [-d delim] [-G gid] [-g pgrp] [-P ppid] [-s sid] [-t tty]
[-U uid] [-u euid] [pattern ...]
pkill [-signal] [-fnvx] [-G gid] [-g pgrp] [-P ppid] [-s sid] [-t tty]
[-U uid] [-u euid] [pattern ...]
The pgrep command searches the process table on the running system and
prints the process IDs of all processes that match the criteria given on
the command line.
The pkill command searches the process table on the running system and
signals all processes that match the criteria given on the command line.
The following options are available:
-d delim
Specify a delimiter to be printed between each process ID. The
default is a newline. This option can only be used with the pgrep
command.
-f Match against full argument lists. The default is to match
against process names.
-G gid Restrict matches to processes with a real group ID in the comma-
separated list gid.
-g pgrp
Restrict matches to processes with a process group ID in the
comma-separated list pgrp. The value zero is taken to mean the
process group ID of the running pgrep or pkill command.
-l Long output. Print the process name in addition to the process ID
for each matching process. If used in conjunction with -f, print
the process ID and the full argument list for each matching pro-
cess. This option can only be used with the pgrep command.
-n Match only the most recently created process, if any.
-P ppid
Restrict matches to processes with a parent process ID in the
comma-separated list ppid.
-s sid Restrict matches to processes with a session ID in the comma-
separated list sid. The value zero is taken to mean the session
ID of the running pgrep or pkill command.
-t tty Restrict matches to processes associated with a terminal in the
comma-separated list tty. Terminal names may be of the form
'ttyxx' or the shortened form 'xx'. A single dash ('-') matches
processes not associated with a terminal.
-U uid Restrict matches to processes with a real user ID in the comma-
separated list uid.
-u euid
Restrict matches to processes with an effective user ID in the
comma-separated list euid.
-v Reverse the sense of the matching; display processes that do not
match the given criteria.
-x Require an exact match of the process name, or argument list if
-f is given. The default is to match any substring.
-signal
A non-negative decimal number or symbolic signal name specifying
the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM. This option is
valid only when given as the first argument to pkill.
The pattern operand is matched against the process name, or argument list
if -f is given, as an extended regular expression; unanchored by default,
unless -x is given.
Note that a running pgrep or pkill process will never consider itself or
system processes (kernel threads) as a potential match.
pgrep and pkill return one of the following values upon exit:
0 One or more processes were matched.
1 No processes were matched.
2 Invalid options were specified on the command line.
3 An internal error occurred.
grep(1), kill(1), ps(1), kill(2), sigaction(2), re_format(7)
pkill and pgrep first appeared in OpenBSD 3.5. They are modelled after
utilities of the same name that appeared in Sun Solaris 7.
Andrew Doran <ad@NetBSD.org>.
MirBSD #10-current December 23, 2021 1