PKILL(1)                   OpenBSD Reference Manual                   PKILL(1)

NAME
     pgrep, pkill - find or signal processes by name

SYNOPSIS
     pgrep [-flnovx] [-d delim] [-G gid] [-g pgrp] [-P ppid] [-s sid] [-t tty]
           [-U uid] [-u euid] [pattern ...]
     pkill [-signal] [-fnovx] [-G gid] [-g pgrp] [-P ppid] [-s sid] [-t tty]
           [-U uid] [-u euid] [pattern ...]

DESCRIPTION
     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 com-
             ma-separated list pgrp.  The value zero is taken to mean the pro-
             cess 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
             process.  This option can only be used with the pgrep command.

     -n      Match only the most recently created (newest) process, if any.
             Cannot be used in conjunction with -o.

     -o      Match only the least recently created (oldest) process, if any.
             Cannot be used in conjunction with -n.

     -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-sep-
             arated 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 or signal 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.

     If any pattern operands are specified, they are used as regular expres-
     sions to match the command name or, if -f is specified, the full argument
     list of each process.  However, presently OpenBSD will only keep track of
     the first 16 characters of the command name for each process.  Attempts
     to match any characters after the first 16 of a command name will silent-
     ly fail.

     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.

SEE ALSO
     grep(1), kill(1), ps(1), kill(2), sigaction(2), re_format(7)

HISTORY
     pkill and pgrep first appeared in OpenBSD 3.5.  They are modelled after
     utilities of the same name that appeared in Sun Solaris 7.

AUTHORS
     Andrew Doran <ad@NetBSD.org>.

OpenBSD 4.7                      July 27, 2009                               2
