(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 allows the use of extended regular expression patterns and other matching criteria.
Example usage Kill the most recently created process: pkill -n acroread
Send a USR1 signal to process: pkill -USR1 acroread
See also
Some other unix commands related to process management and killing include:
, which sends signals processes by process ID instead of by pattern-matching against the name. , which changes the priority of a process. and , which display a list of processes and their resource usage; can send signals to processes directly from this list. , a command-line utility to send signals or report process status. is favoured over it.
References
External links Oracle: Man pages pgrep, pkill Oracle: How to terminate a process (pkill)