View source for Pkill

{{Short description|Command-line utility for signaling processes}}
{{Lowercase|title=pkill}}
{{Infobox software
| name                   = pkill
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| caption                = 
| author                 = 
| developer              = 
| released               = 
| latest release version = 
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| operating system       = [[Unix]], [[Unix-like]]
| platform               = [[Cross-platform]]
| genre                  = [[Command (computing)|Command]]
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}}
{{mono|'''pkill'''}} (see {{mono|[[pgrep]]}}) is a [[command line interface|command-line]] utility initially written for use with the [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris 7]] operating system in 1998. It has since been reimplemented for [[Linux]] and some [[BSD]]s.

As with the {{mono|[[Kill (command)|kill]]}} and {{mono|[[killall]]}} commands, {{mono|pkill}} is used to send [[Unix signal|signals]] to [[Process (computing)|processes]]. The {{mono|pkill}} command allows the use of extended [[regular expression]] patterns and other matching criteria.

==Example usage==
Kill the most recently created {{mono|acroread}} process:
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
pkill -n acroread
</syntaxhighlight>

Send a [[SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2|USR1]] signal to {{mono|acroread}} process:
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
pkill -USR1 acroread
</syntaxhighlight>

==See also==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

Some other unix commands related to process management and killing include:

* {{mono|[[Kill (Unix)|kill]]}}, which sends signals processes by [[Process identifier|process ID]] instead of by pattern-matching against the name.
* {{mono|[[nice (Unix)#Similar commands|renice]]}}, which changes the priority of a process.
* {{mono|[[top (software)|top]]}} and {{mono|[[htop]]}}, which display a list of processes and their resource usage; {{mono|htop}} can send signals to processes directly from this list.
* {{mono|[[Skill (Unix)|skill]]}}, a command-line utility to send signals or report process status. {{mono|pkill}} is favoured over it.

==References==
*{{man|1|pkill|Solaris}}
*{{man|1|pkill|die.net|look up processes based on name and other attributes}}

==External links==
* [http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/816-5165/pkill-1/index.html Oracle: Man pages pgrep, pkill]
* [http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19120-01/open.solaris/819-2380/spprocess-95930/index.html Oracle: How to terminate a process (pkill)]

{{Unix commands}}

[[Category:Unix process- and task-management-related software]]