dwww Home | Manual pages | Find package

PGREP(1)                         User Commands                        PGREP(1)

NAME
       pgrep, pkill, pidwait - look up, signal, or wait for processes based on
       name and other attributes

SYNOPSIS
       pgrep [options] pattern
       pkill [options] pattern
       pidwait [options] pattern

DESCRIPTION
       pgrep looks through the  currently  running  processes  and  lists  the
       process IDs which match the selection criteria to stdout.  All the cri-
       teria have to match.  For example,

              $ pgrep -u root sshd

       will only list the processes called sshd AND owned  by  root.   On  the
       other hand,

              $ pgrep -u root,daemon

       will list the processes owned by root OR daemon.

       pkill  will  send  the  specified  signal  (by default SIGTERM) to each
       process instead of listing them on stdout.

       pidwait will wait for each process instead of listing them on stdout.

OPTIONS
       -signal
       --signal signal
              Defines the signal to send to each matched process.  Either  the
              numeric or the symbolic signal name can be used.  (pkill only.)

       -c, --count
              Suppress  normal  output; instead print a count of matching pro-
              cesses.  When count does not match anything, e.g. returns  zero,
              the  command will return non-zero value. Note that for pkill and
              pidwait, the count is the number of matching processes, not  the
              processes that were successfully signaled or waited for.

       -d, --delimiter delimiter
              Sets  the  string  used to delimit each process ID in the output
              (by default a newline).  (pgrep only.)

       -e, --echo
              Display name and PID of the process being killed.  (pkill only.)

       -f, --full
              The pattern is normally only matched against the  process  name.
              When -f is set, the full command line is used.

       -g, --pgroup pgrp,...
              Only  match  processes in the process group IDs listed.  Process
              group 0 is translated into pgrep's, pkill's,  or  pidwait's  own
              process group.

       -G, --group gid,...
              Only  match processes whose real group ID is listed.  Either the
              numerical or symbolical value may be used.

       -i, --ignore-case
              Match processes case-insensitively.

       -l, --list-name
              List the process name as well as the process ID.  (pgrep only.)

       -a, --list-full
              List the full command line as well as the  process  ID.   (pgrep
              only.)

       -n, --newest
              Select  only  the newest (most recently started) of the matching
              processes.

       -o, --oldest
              Select only the oldest (least recently started) of the  matching
              processes.

       -O, --older secs
              Select processes older than secs.

       -P, --parent ppid,...
              Only match processes whose parent process ID is listed.

       -s, --session sid,...
              Only  match  processes whose process session ID is listed.  Ses-
              sion ID 0 is translated into pgrep's, pkill's, or pidwait's  own
              session ID.

       -t, --terminal term,...
              Only  match processes whose controlling terminal is listed.  The
              terminal name should be specified without the "/dev/" prefix.

       -u, --euid euid,...
              Only match processes whose effective user ID is listed.   Either
              the numerical or symbolical value may be used.

       -U, --uid uid,...
              Only  match  processes whose real user ID is listed.  Either the
              numerical or symbolical value may be used.

       -v, --inverse
              Negates the matching.  This option is usually used in pgrep's or
              pidwait's  context.  In pkill's context the short option is dis-
              abled to avoid accidental usage of the option.

       -w, --lightweight
              Shows all thread ids instead of pids  in  pgrep's  or  pidwait's
              context.  In pkill's context this option is disabled.

       -x, --exact
              Only  match  processes  whose  names  (or command lines if -f is
              specified) exactly match the pattern.

       -F, --pidfile file
              Read PIDs from file.  This option is more useful for pkillorpid-
              wait than pgrep.

       -L, --logpidfile
              Fail if pidfile (see -F) not locked.

       -r, --runstates D,R,S,Z,...
              Match only processes which match the process state.

       -A, --ignore-ancestors
              Ignore  all ancestors of pgrep, pkill, or pidwait.  For example,
              this can be useful when elevating with sudo or similar tools.

       --cgroup name,...
              Match on provided control group (cgroup) v2 name. See cgroups(8)

       --ns pid
              Match processes that belong to the same namespaces. Required  to
              run  as  root  to match processes from other users. See --nslist
              for how to limit which namespaces to match.

       --nslist name,...
              Match only the provided namespaces. Available  namespaces:  ipc,
              mnt, net, pid, user,uts.

       -q, --queue value
              Use  sigqueue(3)  rather  than kill(2) and the value argument is
              used to specify an integer to be sent with the  signal.  If  the
              receiving  process has installed a handler for this signal using
              the SA_SIGINFO flag to sigaction(2) , then it  can  obtain  this
              data via the si_value field of the siginfo_t structure.

       -V, --version
              Display version information and exit.

       -h, --help
              Display help and exit.

OPERANDS
       pattern
              Specifies  an  Extended  Regular Expression for matching against
              the process names or command lines.

EXAMPLES
       Example 1: Find the process ID of the named daemon:

              $ pgrep -u root named

       Example 2: Make syslog reread its configuration file:

              $ pkill -HUP syslogd

       Example 3: Give detailed information on all xterm processes:

              $ ps -fp $(pgrep -d, -x xterm)

       Example 4: Make all chrome processes run nicer:

              $ renice +4 $(pgrep chrome)

EXIT STATUS
       0      One or more processes matched the criteria. For pkill  and  pid-
              wait,  one  or  more  processes must also have been successfully
              signalled or waited for.
       1      No processes matched or none of them could be signalled.
       2      Syntax error in the command line.
       3      Fatal error: out of memory etc.

NOTES
       The process name used for matching is  limited  to  the  15  characters
       present  in  the  output of /proc/pid/stat.  Use the -f option to match
       against the complete command line, /proc/pid/cmdline. Threads  may  not
       have the same process name as the parent process but will have the same
       command line.

       The running pgrep, pkill, or pidwait process will never  report  itself
       as a match.

       The  -O  --older option will silently fail if /proc is mounted with the
       subset=pid option.

BUGS
       The options -n and -o and -v can not be combined.  Let me know  if  you
       need to do this.

       Defunct processes are reported.

       pidwait  requires the pidfd_open(2) system call which first appeared in
       Linux 5.3.

SEE ALSO
       ps(1), regex(7), signal(7), sigqueue(3), killall(1), skill(1), kill(1),
       kill(2), cgroups(8)

AUTHOR
       Kjetil Torgrim Homme ⟨kjetilho@ifi.uio.noREPORTING BUGS
       Please send bug reports to ⟨procps@freelists.org⟩

procps-ng                         2022-08-31                          PGREP(1)

Generated by dwww version 1.15 on Sun Jun 16 23:35:03 CEST 2024.