---
name: "killall"
section: "1"
platform: "macos"
package: "shell_cmds"
version: "329"
release: "macOS 26.5"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/killall"
---

# killall(1)

kill processes by name

## NAME

**killall** – kill processes by name

## SYNOPSIS

**killall** \[**-delmsvqz**\] \[**-help**\] \[**-I**\] \[**-u** *user*\] \[**-t** *tty*\] \[**-c** *procname*\] \[**-***SIGNAL*\] \[*procname* *...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **killall** utility kills processes selected by name, as opposed to the selection by PID as done by [kill(1)](/kill/1.md). By default, it will send a TERM signal to all processes with a real UID identical to the caller of **killall** that match the name *procname*. The super-user is allowed to kill any process.

The options are as follows:

- **-d**

  Be more verbose about what will be done, but do not send any signal. The total number of user processes and the real user ID is shown. A list of the processes that will be sent the signal will be printed, or a message indicating that no matching processes have been found.

- **-e**

  Use the effective user ID instead of the (default) real user ID for matching processes specified with the **-u** option.

- **-help**

  Give a help on the command usage and exit.

- **-I**

  Request confirmation before attempting to signal each process.

- **-l**

  List the names of the available signals and exit, like in [kill(1)](/kill/1.md).

- **-m**

  Match the argument *procname* as a (case sensitive) regular expression against the names of processes found. CAUTION! This is dangerous, a single dot will match any process running under the real UID of the caller.

- **-v**

  Be verbose about what will be done.

- **-s**

  Same as **-v**, but do not send any signal.

- **-***SIGNAL*

  Send a different signal instead of the default TERM. The signal may be specified either as a name (with or without a leading “SIG”), or numerically.

- **-u** *user*

  Limit potentially matching processes to those belonging to the specified *user*.

- **-t** *tty*

  Limit potentially matching processes to those running on the specified *tty*.

- **-c** *procname*

  Limit potentially matching processes to those matching the specified *procname*.

- **-q**

  Suppress error message if no processes are matched.

- **-z**

  Do not skip zombies. This should not have any effect except to print a few error messages if there are zombie processes that match the specified pattern.

## ALL PROCESSES

Sending a signal to all processes with the given UID is already supported by [kill(1)](/kill/1.md). So use [kill(1)](/kill/1.md) for this job (e.g. “kill -TERM -1” or as root “echo kill -TERM -1 \| su -m \<user\>”).

## IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

This FreeBSD implementation of **killall** has completely different semantics as compared to the traditional UNIX System V behavior of **killall**. The latter will kill all processes that the current user is able to kill, and is intended to be used by the system shutdown process only.

## EXIT STATUS

The **killall** utility exits 0 if some processes have been found and signalled successfully. Otherwise, a status of 1 will be returned.

## EXAMPLES

Send SIGTERM to all firefox processes:

```
killall firefox
```

Send SIGTERM to firefox processes belonging to *USER*:

```
killall -u ${USER} firefox
```

Stop all firefox processes:

```
killall -SIGSTOP firefox
```

Resume firefox processes:

```
killall -SIGCONT firefox
```

Show what would be done to firefox processes, but do not actually signal them:

```
killall -s firefox
```

Send SIGTERM to all processes matching provided pattern (like vim and vimdiff):

```
killall -m 'vim*'
```

## DIAGNOSTICS

Diagnostic messages will only be printed if the **-d** flag is used.

## SEE ALSO

[kill(1)](/kill/1.md), [pkill(1)](/pkill/1.md), [sysctl(3)](/sysctl/3.md)

## HISTORY

The **killall** command appeared in FreeBSD 2.1. It has been modeled after the **killall** command as available on other platforms.

## AUTHORS

The **killall** program was originally written in Perl and was contributed by Wolfram Schneider, this manual page has been written by Jörg Wunsch. The current version of **killall** was rewritten in C by Peter Wemm using [sysctl(3)](/sysctl/3.md).