killall is a
command line
A command-line interface (CLI) is a means of interacting with software via command (computing), commands each formatted as a line of text. Command-line interfaces emerged in the mid-1960s, on computer terminals, as an interactive and more user ...
utility available on
Unix-like
A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X, *nix or *NIX) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Uni ...
systems. There are two very different implementations.
* The implementation supplied with genuine
UNIX System V
Unix System V (pronounced: "System Five") is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, an ...
(including
Solaris
Solaris is the Latin word for sun.
It may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film
* ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem
** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg
** ''Sol ...
) and
Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
sysvinit tools kills all processes that the user is able to kill, potentially shutting down the system if run by root.
* The implementation supplied with the
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable ...
(including
Mac OS X
macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
) and
Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
psmisc tools is similar to the
pkill
(see ) is a command-line utility initially written for use with the Solaris 7 operating system in 1998. It has since been reimplemented for Linux and some BSDs.
As with the and commands, is used to send signals to processes. The command ...
and
skill commands, killing only the processes specified on the command line.
Both commands operate by sending a
signal
A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology.
In ...
, like the
kill
Kill often refers to:
*Homicide, one human killing another
*cause death, to kill a living organism, to cause its death
Other common uses include:
*Kill (body of water), a body of water, most commonly a creek
*Kill (command), a computing command
*K ...
program.
Example usage
Kill all processes named xmms:
killall xmms
See also
*
List of Unix commands
This is a list of the shell commands of the most recent version of the Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) IEEE Std 1003.1-2024 which is part of the Single UNIX Specification (SUS). These commands are implemented in many shells on moder ...
*
Signal (computing)
Signals are standardized messages sent to a running program to trigger specific behavior, such as quitting or error handling. They are a limited form of inter-process communication (IPC), typically used in Unix, Unix-like, and other POSIX-comp ...
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Unix commands
Unix process- and task-management-related software
de:Kill (Unix)#killall