pkill – Kill a Process by Its Name

The pkill command is a Linux command that is used to kill or signal a process by its name. It allows users to terminate a process without knowing its process ID (PID). The pkill command is very useful when dealing with multiple processes that have the same name, and you need to kill a specific process.

Overview

The syntax of the pkill command is as follows:

pkill [options] <process_name>

The pkill command takes a process name as an argument and sends a signal to all processes with that name. By default, pkill sends a SIGTERM signal to the process, which allows it to terminate gracefully. If the process does not respond to the SIGTERM signal, pkill sends a SIGKILL signal to force the process to terminate.

Examples

To kill a process named firefox, you can use the following command:

pkill firefox

This command will send a SIGTERM signal to all processes with the name firefox.

You can also use regular expressions to match the process name. For example, to kill all processes that start with chrome, you can use the following command:

pkill '^chrome'

This command will send a SIGTERM signal to all processes that start with the string chrome.

Specific use cases

• To kill a frozen application
• To kill multiple processes with the same name
• To automate the process of killing a specific process

Options

Here are the available options for the pkill command:

Troubleshooting tips

• If pkill fails to kill a process, try using the kill command with the process ID instead.
• If you are not sure about the process name, use the pgrep command to find the process ID before using pkill.

Notes

• The pkill command is a powerful tool that can be used to terminate processes quickly and efficiently.
• Be careful when using pkill as it can terminate important processes without warning.
• Always try to terminate a process gracefully before using pkill to force termination.