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[Explore Stack Internal](https://stackoverflow.co/internal/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unix-community&utm_campaign=side-bar&utm_content=explore-teams-compact-popover) # [How to kill multiple processes](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes) [Ask Question](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/ask) Asked 9 years, 8 months ago Modified [4 years, 11 months ago](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes?lastactivity "2021-04-02 10:33:38Z") Viewed 90k times This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear 31 Save this question. Show activity on this post. to find the PID of the process to kill use : ``` pgrep <process command> ``` I then use the kill command to kill the PID returned by `pgrep <process command>` ``` kill <PID> ``` Can these commands be combined into one so can kill the PID or PID's returned by `pgrep <process command>` ? Or is there a method kill multiple processes by command name ? Something like : `kill(pgrep <name of process>)` - [kill](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/kill "show questions tagged 'kill'") - [ps](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/ps "show questions tagged 'ps'") - [process-management](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/process-management "show questions tagged 'process-management'") [Share](https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/296086 "Short permalink to this question") Share a link to this question Copy link [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0") [Improve this question](https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/296086/edit) Follow Follow this question to receive notifications [edited Jul 15, 2016 at 10:16](https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/296086/revisions "show all edits to this post") [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/22222/terdon) [terdon](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/22222/terdon)♦ 254k6969 gold badges484484 silver badges722722 bronze badges asked Jul 15, 2016 at 10:02 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/65628/blue-sky) [blue-sky](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/65628/blue-sky) 49011 gold badge66 silver badges1414 bronze badges 2 - 3 Did you try `pkill`? Alternatively, you may want to use `xargs`. MatthewRock – [MatthewRock](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/129998/matthewrock "7,244 reputation") 2016-07-15 10:07:40 +00:00 [Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 10:07](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment519739_296086) - 1 Note that man pages are also good for stuff like this. Often they not only tell you how to use the command, they also tell you about related commands. In this case, the `pgrep` man page mentions `pkill` all over the place (as the 2 commands come from the same package). phemmer – [phemmer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/4358/phemmer "74,101 reputation") 2016-07-15 12:37:34 +00:00 [Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 12:37](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment519819_296086) [Add a comment](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes "Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. Avoid answering questions in comments.") \| ## 5 Answers 5 Sorted by: [Reset to default](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes?answertab=scoredesc#tab-top) This answer is useful 37 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. You can use pkill: ``` pkill httpd ``` You may also want to use process substitution(although this isn't as clear): ``` kill $(pgrep command) ``` And you may want to use `xargs`: ``` pgrep command | xargs kill ``` [Share](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/296088 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0") [Improve this answer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/296088/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications [edited Nov 8, 2016 at 0:38](https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/296088/revisions "show all edits to this post") [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/7453/slm) [slm](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/7453/slm)♦ 381k127127 gold badges794794 silver badges897897 bronze badges answered Jul 15, 2016 at 10:11 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/129998/matthewrock) [MatthewRock](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/129998/matthewrock) 7,24477 gold badges3535 silver badges5555 bronze badges 5 - 4 I did a similar thing in an answer and it was pointed out to me that I introduced a race condition. The process IDs may be invalidated inbetween the calls to `pgrep` and `kill`. Just use `pkill`. Kusalananda – [Kusalananda](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/116858/kusalananda "357,982 reputation") ♦ 2016-07-15 10:37:08 +00:00 [Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 10:37](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment519755_296088) - 3 @Kusalananda the same thing can also happen between `pkill` getting the process list and actually sending the signal, it's just harder to see in that case. hobbs – [hobbs](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/1215/hobbs "1,152 reputation") 2016-07-15 19:33:58 +00:00 [Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 19:33](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment519993_296088) - 1 I was going to try to compose an answer that looped something like `kill $(ps|head -1)` to avoid the race condition ... but there really isn't a way to avoid it. The process could die at any point in the pipeline. Ross Presser – [Ross Presser](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/124478/ross-presser "143 reputation") 2016-07-15 23:01:02 +00:00 [Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 23:01](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment520052_296088) - Just be careful with pkill because some programs may have more than one instance running and you might not want to kill all of them. Running pgrep first will help as long as another one doesn't start between the time you run pgrep and pkill (race). Joe – [Joe](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/10292/joe "1,388 reputation") 2016-07-17 08:11:00 +00:00 [Commented Jul 17, 2016 at 8:11](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment520442_296088) - 1 Even a C program can't avoid the race condition, the window will just be smaller. The only way to do it truly atomically would be to add a system call that kills processes by name. But process IDs generally won't be reused very quickly, so the danger is virtually nonexistent. Barmar – [Barmar](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/61098/barmar "10,591 reputation") 2016-07-20 17:35:43 +00:00 [Commented Jul 20, 2016 at 17:35](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment521926_296088) [Add a comment](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes "Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. Avoid comments like “+1” or “thanks”.") \| This answer is useful 19 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. You can use `killall` as well, e.g. ``` killall firefox ``` to send `SIGTERM` to all `firefox` processes. [Share](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/296092 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0") [Improve this answer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/296092/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Jul 15, 2016 at 10:27 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/103151/byte-commander) [Byte Commander](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/103151/byte-commander) 1,8611414 silver badges2828 bronze badges 3 - 8 Note that `killall` has different meanings on different unix systems - if you're on a non-Linux system make sure to check the documentation. Random832 – [Random832](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/6290/random832 "11,281 reputation") 2016-07-15 14:54:18 +00:00 [Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 14:54](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment519881_296092) - `killall -KILL firefox` can feel *sooo* rewarding. pipe – [pipe](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/145426/pipe "892 reputation") 2016-07-16 10:20:48 +00:00 [Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 10:20](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment520176_296092) - The non-portability of `killall` is why I never use it. Running `killall` on a solaris box for example is disastrous. phemmer – [phemmer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/4358/phemmer "74,101 reputation") 2016-07-21 03:10:14 +00:00 [Commented Jul 21, 2016 at 3:10](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment522104_296092) [Add a comment](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes "Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. Avoid comments like “+1” or “thanks”.") \| This answer is useful 12 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. Yes, you can use a bash feature and looping over the output. ``` $ for proc in $(pgrep <process command>); do kill $proc; done ``` [Share](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/296089 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0") [Improve this answer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/296089/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Jul 15, 2016 at 10:12 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/1186/lcipriani) [lcipriani](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/1186/lcipriani) 74266 silver badges88 bronze badges 2 - 1 I get `kill <no>:failed: operation not permitted` Timo – [Timo](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/72988/timo "348 reputation") 2017-11-18 21:55:36 +00:00 [Commented Nov 18, 2017 at 21:55](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment725280_296089) - Probably you do not have the right permissions or the process does not exists anymore, please refer to: [superuser.com/questions/1175485/…](https://superuser.com/questions/1175485/why-operation-not-permitted-when-kill-a-nonexistent-process-and-why-need-to-be-k "why operation not permitted when kill a nonexistent process and why need to be k") lcipriani – [lcipriani](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/1186/lcipriani "742 reputation") 2017-12-11 13:23:19 +00:00 [Commented Dec 11, 2017 at 13:23](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes#comment734855_296089) [Add a comment](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes "Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. Avoid comments like “+1” or “thanks”.") \| This answer is useful 0 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. You can kill multiple process with array. In this case you can specify options as `$ip`, `$hostname` or something similar. ``` ip=your_ip_address; declare -a arr=$(ps aux|grep tail|grep $ip|awk '{print $2}'); for pid in ${arr[@]}; do kill -9 $pid; done; ``` [Share](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/448363 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0") [Improve this answer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/448363/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications [edited Jun 7, 2018 at 10:09](https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/448363/revisions "show all edits to this post") [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/195932/kevin-lemaire) [Kevin Lemaire](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/195932/kevin-lemaire) 1,72911 gold badge1414 silver badges2828 bronze badges answered Jun 7, 2018 at 8:34 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/237730/vladyslav-greyswandir) [Vladyslav Greyswandir](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/237730/vladyslav-greyswandir) 2111 silver badge55 bronze badges [Add a comment](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes "Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. Avoid comments like “+1” or “thanks”.") \| This answer is useful 0 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. When you are running scripts, especially in a stacking way, giving process name does not work for me. Thus I am using this simple command: ``` ps -eaf | grep -i script_hint (or whatever condition is) | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill -15 ``` [Share](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/643210 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0") [Improve this answer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/643210/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Apr 2, 2021 at 10:33 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/421849/acfglmrsx) [acfglmrsx](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/421849/acfglmrsx) 3366 bronze badges [Add a comment](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/296086/how-to-kill-multiple-processes "Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. 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This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear 31 Save this question. Show activity on this post. to find the PID of the process to kill use : ``` pgrep <process command> ``` I then use the kill command to kill the PID returned by `pgrep <process command>` ``` kill <PID> ``` Can these commands be combined into one so can kill the PID or PID's returned by `pgrep <process command>` ? Or is there a method kill multiple processes by command name ? Something like : `kill(pgrep <name of process>)` [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/22222/terdon) [terdon](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/22222/terdon)♦ 254k69 gold badges484 silver badges722 bronze badges asked Jul 15, 2016 at 10:02 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/65628/blue-sky) 2 This answer is useful 37 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. You can use pkill: ``` pkill httpd ``` You may also want to use process substitution(although this isn't as clear): ``` kill $(pgrep command) ``` And you may want to use `xargs`: ``` pgrep command | xargs kill ``` [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/7453/slm) [slm](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/7453/slm)♦ 381k127 gold badges794 silver badges897 bronze badges answered Jul 15, 2016 at 10:11 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/129998/matthewrock) 5 This answer is useful 19 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. You can use `killall` as well, e.g. ``` killall firefox ``` to send `SIGTERM` to all `firefox` processes. answered Jul 15, 2016 at 10:27 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/103151/byte-commander) 3 This answer is useful 12 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. Yes, you can use a bash feature and looping over the output. ``` $ for proc in $(pgrep <process command>); do kill $proc; done ``` answered Jul 15, 2016 at 10:12 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/1186/lcipriani) 2 This answer is useful 0 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. You can kill multiple process with array. In this case you can specify options as `$ip`, `$hostname` or something similar. ``` ip=your_ip_address; declare -a arr=$(ps aux|grep tail|grep $ip|awk '{print $2}'); for pid in ${arr[@]}; do kill -9 $pid; done; ``` [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/195932/kevin-lemaire) answered Jun 7, 2018 at 8:34 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/237730/vladyslav-greyswandir) This answer is useful 0 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. When you are running scripts, especially in a stacking way, giving process name does not work for me. Thus I am using this simple command: ``` ps -eaf | grep -i script_hint (or whatever condition is) | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill -15 ``` answered Apr 2, 2021 at 10:33 [](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/421849/acfglmrsx) ## You must [log in](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/login?ssrc=question_page&returnurl=https%3A%2F%2Funix.stackexchange.com%2Fquestions%2F296086) to answer this question. Start asking to get answers Find the answer to your question by asking. [Ask question](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/ask) Explore related questions See similar questions with these tags.