[-d delim] [-g pgrp] [-s sid] [-t tty] [-u euid] [pattern [...]]
     pkill [-signal] [-fnvx] [-G gid] [-M core] [-N system] [-P ppid] [-U uid]
           [-g pgrp] [-s sid] [-t tty] [-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:

     -G gid    Restrict matches to processes with a real group ID in the
               comma-separated list gid.

     -P ppid   Restrict matches to processes with a parent process ID in the
               comma-separated list ppid.

     -M        Extract values associated with the name list from the specified
               core instead of the default /dev/kmem.

     -N        Extract the name list from the specified system instead of the
               default /kernel.

     -U uid    Restrict matches to processes with a real user ID in the comma-
               separated list uid.

     -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 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 match-
               ing process.  This option can only be used with the pgrep com-
               mand.

     -n        Match only the most recently created process, if any.

     -s sid    Restrict matches to processes with a session ID in the comma-
               separated list.  sid.  The value zero is taken to mean the ses-
               sion ID of the running pgrep or pkill command.

     -signal   A non-negative decimal number or symbolic signal name specify-
               ing the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM.  This
               option is valid only when given as the first argument to pkill.

     Note that a running pgrep or pkill process will never consider itself nor
     system processes (kernel threads) as a potential match.

EXIT STATUS

     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

     kill(1), ps(1), kill(2), sigaction(2), re_format(7), signal(7)

HISTORY

     pkill and pgrep first appeared in NetBSD 1.6.  They are modelled after
     utilities of the same name that appeared in Sun Solaris 7.  The FreeBSD
     version was obtained from NetBSD 1.6.

AUTHORS

     Andrew Doran <ad@netbsd.org>


BSD                              March 1, 2002                             BSD