xref: /freebsd/bin/pkill/pkill.1 (revision 3c4ba5f55438f7afd4f4b0b56f88f2bb505fd6a6)
1.\"	$NetBSD: pkill.1,v 1.8 2003/02/14 15:59:18 grant Exp $
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3.\" $FreeBSD$
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5.\" Copyright (c) 2002 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
6.\" All rights reserved.
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8.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
9.\" by Andrew Doran.
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32.Dd October 5, 2020
33.Dt PKILL 1
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm pgrep , pkill
37.Nd find or signal processes by name
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Nm pgrep
40.Op Fl LSafilnoqvx
41.Op Fl F Ar pidfile
42.Op Fl G Ar gid
43.Op Fl M Ar core
44.Op Fl N Ar system
45.Op Fl P Ar ppid
46.Op Fl U Ar uid
47.Op Fl c Ar class
48.Op Fl d Ar delim
49.Op Fl g Ar pgrp
50.Op Fl j Ar jail
51.Op Fl s Ar sid
52.Op Fl t Ar tty
53.Op Fl u Ar euid
54.Ar pattern ...
55.Nm pkill
56.Op Fl Ar signal
57.Op Fl ILafilnovx
58.Op Fl F Ar pidfile
59.Op Fl G Ar gid
60.Op Fl M Ar core
61.Op Fl N Ar system
62.Op Fl P Ar ppid
63.Op Fl U Ar uid
64.Op Fl c Ar class
65.Op Fl g Ar pgrp
66.Op Fl j Ar jail
67.Op Fl s Ar sid
68.Op Fl t Ar tty
69.Op Fl u Ar euid
70.Ar pattern ...
71.Sh DESCRIPTION
72The
73.Nm pgrep
74command searches the process table on the running system and prints the
75process IDs of all processes that match the criteria given on the command
76line.
77.Pp
78The
79.Nm pkill
80command searches the process table on the running system and signals all
81processes that match the criteria given on the command line.
82.Pp
83The following options are available:
84.Bl -tag -width ".Fl F Ar pidfile"
85.It Fl F Ar pidfile
86Restrict matches to a process whose PID is stored in the
87.Ar pidfile
88file.
89.It Fl G Ar gid
90Restrict matches to processes with a real group ID in the comma-separated
91list
92.Ar gid .
93.It Fl I
94Request confirmation before attempting to signal each process.
95.It Fl L
96The
97.Ar pidfile
98file given for the
99.Fl F
100option must be locked with the
101.Xr flock 2
102syscall or created with
103.Xr pidfile 3 .
104.It Fl M Ar core
105Extract values associated with the name list from the specified core
106instead of the currently running system.
107.It Fl N Ar system
108Extract the name list from the specified system instead of the default,
109which is the kernel image the system has booted from.
110.It Fl P Ar ppid
111Restrict matches to processes with a parent process ID in the
112comma-separated list
113.Ar ppid .
114.It Fl S
115Search also in system processes (kernel threads).
116.It Fl U Ar uid
117Restrict matches to processes with a real user ID in the comma-separated
118list
119.Ar uid .
120.It Fl d Ar delim
121Specify a delimiter to be printed between each process ID.
122The default is a newline.
123This option can only be used with the
124.Nm pgrep
125command.
126.It Fl a
127Include process ancestors in the match list.
128By default, the current
129.Nm pgrep
130or
131.Nm pkill
132process and all of its ancestors are excluded (unless
133.Fl v
134is used).
135.It Fl c Ar class
136Restrict matches to processes running with specified login class
137.Ar class .
138.It Fl f
139Match against full argument lists.
140The default is to match against process names.
141.It Fl g Ar pgrp
142Restrict matches to processes with a process group ID in the comma-separated
143list
144.Ar pgrp .
145The value zero is taken to mean the process group ID of the running
146.Nm pgrep
147or
148.Nm pkill
149command.
150.It Fl i
151Ignore case distinctions in both the process table and the supplied pattern.
152.It Fl j Ar jail
153Restrict matches to processes inside the specified jails.
154The argument
155.Ar jail
156may be
157.Dq Li any
158to match processes in any jail,
159.Dq Li none
160to match processes not in jail,
161or a comma-separated list of jail IDs or names.
162.It Fl l
163Long output.
164For
165.Nm pgrep ,
166print the process name in addition to the process ID for each matching
167process.
168If used in conjunction with
169.Fl f ,
170print the process ID and the full argument list for each matching process.
171For
172.Nm pkill ,
173display the kill command used for each process killed.
174.It Fl n
175Select only the newest (most recently started) of the matching processes.
176.It Fl o
177Select only the oldest (least recently started) of the matching processes.
178.It Fl q
179For
180.Nm pgrep ,
181Do not write anything to standard output.
182.It Fl s Ar sid
183Restrict matches to processes with a session ID in the comma-separated
184list
185.Ar sid .
186The value zero is taken to mean the session ID of the running
187.Nm pgrep
188or
189.Nm pkill
190command.
191.It Fl t Ar tty
192Restrict matches to processes associated with a terminal in the
193comma-separated list
194.Ar tty .
195Terminal names may be of the form
196.Pa tty Ns Ar xx
197or the shortened form
198.Ar xx .
199A single dash
200.Pq Ql -
201matches processes not associated with a terminal.
202.It Fl u Ar euid
203Restrict matches to processes with an effective user ID in the
204comma-separated list
205.Ar euid .
206.It Fl v
207Reverse the sense of the matching; display processes that do not match the
208given criteria.
209.It Fl x
210Require an exact match of the process name, or argument list if
211.Fl f
212is given.
213The default is to match any substring.
214.It Fl Ns Ar signal
215A non-negative decimal number or symbolic signal name specifying the signal
216to be sent instead of the default
217.Dv TERM .
218This option is valid only when given as the first argument to
219.Nm pkill .
220.El
221.Pp
222If any
223.Ar pattern
224operands are specified, they are used as extended regular expressions to match
225the command name or full argument list of each process.
226If the
227.Fl f
228option is not specified, then the
229.Ar pattern
230will attempt to match the command name.
231However, presently
232.Fx
233will only keep track of the first 19 characters of the command
234name for each process.
235Attempts to match any characters after the first 19 of a command name
236will quietly fail.
237.Pp
238Note that a running
239.Nm pgrep
240or
241.Nm pkill
242process will never consider itself nor system processes (kernel threads) as
243a potential match.
244.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
245The Sun Solaris implementation utilised procfs to obtain process information.
246This implementation utilises
247.Xr kvm 3
248instead.
249On a live system,
250.Xr kvm 3
251uses
252.Va kern.proc
253MIB to obtain the list of processes, kernel memory through
254.Pa /dev/kmem
255is not accessed.
256.Sh EXIT STATUS
257The
258.Nm pgrep
259and
260.Nm pkill
261utilities
262return one of the following values upon exit:
263.Bl -tag -width indent
264.It 0
265One or more processes were matched.
266.It 1
267No processes were matched.
268.It 2
269Invalid options were specified on the command line.
270.It 3
271An internal error occurred.
272.El
273.Sh EXAMPLES
274Show the pid of the process holding the
275.Pa /tmp/.X0-lock
276pid file:
277.Bd -literal -offset indent
278$ pgrep -F /tmp/.X0-lock
2791211
280.Ed
281.Pp
282Show the pid and the name of the process including kernel threads in the
283search:
284.Bd -literal -offset indent
285$ pgrep -lS vnlru
28637 vnlru
287.Ed
288.Pp
289Search for processes including kernel threads that match the extended regular
290expression pattern:
291.Bd -literal -offset indent
292$ pgrep -S 'crypto.*[2-3]'
29320
29419
2956
2965
297.Ed
298.Pp
299Show long output for firefox processes:
300.Bd -literal -offset indent
301$ pgrep -l firefox
3021312 firefox
3031309 firefox
3041288 firefox
3051280 firefox
3061279 firefox
3071278 firefox
3081277 firefox
3091264 firefox
310.Ed
311.Pp
312Same as above but just showing the pid of the most recent process:
313.Bd -literal -offset indent
314$ pgrep -n firefox
3151312
316.Ed
317.Pp
318Look for vim processes.
319Match against the full argument list:
320.Bd -literal -offset indent
321$ pgrep -f vim
32244968
32330790
324.Ed
325.Pp
326Same as above but matching against the
327.Ql list
328word and showing the full argument list:
329.Bd -literal -offset indent
330$ pgrep -f -l list
33130790 vim list.txt
332.Ed
333.Pp
334Send
335.Va SIGSTOP
336signal to processes that are an exact match:
337.Bd -literal -offset indent
338$ pkill -SIGSTOP -f -x "vim list.txt"
339.Ed
340.Pp
341Without
342.Fl f
343names over 19 characters will silently fail:
344.Bd -literal -offset indent
345$ vim this_is_a_very_long_file_name &
346[1] 36689
347$
348
349[1]+  Stopped                 vim this_is_a_very_long_file_name
350$ pgrep "vim this"
351$
352.Ed
353.Pp
354Same as above using the
355.Fl f
356flag:
357.Bd -literal -offset indent
358$ pgrep -f "vim this"
35936689
360.Ed
361.Pp
362Find the
363.Xr top 1
364command running in any jail:
365.Bd -literal -offset indent
366$ pgrep -j any top
36734498
368.Ed
369.Pp
370Show all processes running in jail ID 58:
371.Bd -literal -offset indent
372$ pgrep -l -j58 '.*'
37328397 pkg-static
37428396 pkg-static
37528255 sh
37628254 make
377.Ed
378.Sh COMPATIBILITY
379Historically the option
380.Dq Fl j Li 0
381means any jail, although in other utilities such as
382.Xr ps 1
383jail ID
384.Li 0
385has the opposite meaning, not in jail.
386Therefore
387.Dq Fl j Li 0
388is deprecated, and its use is discouraged in favor of
389.Dq Fl j Li any .
390.Sh SEE ALSO
391.Xr kill 1 ,
392.Xr killall 1 ,
393.Xr ps 1 ,
394.Xr flock 2 ,
395.Xr kill 2 ,
396.Xr sigaction 2 ,
397.Xr kvm 3 ,
398.Xr pidfile 3 ,
399.Xr re_format 7
400.\" Xr signal 7
401.Sh HISTORY
402The
403.Nm pkill
404and
405.Nm pgrep
406utilities
407first appeared in
408.Nx 1.6 .
409They are modelled after utilities of the same name that appeared in Sun
410Solaris 7.
411They made their first appearance in
412.Fx 5.3 .
413.Sh AUTHORS
414.An Andrew Doran Aq Mt ad@NetBSD.org
415