kill all Command in Linux with Examples

Have you ever confronted the circumstance where you executed a program or an application, and abruptly while you are utilizing the application, it gets halted and starts to crash? You attempt to begin the application again, yet nothing happens on the grounds that the first application measure never genuinely closes down totally. The arrangement is to end the application cycle. Fortunately, there are a few utilities in Linux that permit you to execute the kill process. It is recommended to read kill Command before proceeding further.

The primary contrast between the kill and kill all commands is that the “kill” ends process cycles dependent on Process ID number (PID), while the kill orders end running cycles dependent on their names and different attributes. Normal users can end/kill their cycles(processes), but not those that have a place with different users, while the root client can end all cycles. The ionic device acknowledges the accompanying alternatives

The following are the options of killall command with detailed description.

To know the contrast among kill and killall orders we first need to ensure that we comprehend the nuts and bolts behind cycles on the Linux OS. The process is an occurrence of a running system. Each process cycle is allotted PID ( Process ID ) which is remarkable for each cycle and in this way, no two cycles can be allocated the same PID. When the cycle is ended the PID is accessible for reuse. 

The killall command in Linux is a powerful utility used to terminate multiple processes by name. Unlike the kill command, which requires process IDs, killall identifies and terminates all processes that match the specified name, making it efficient for managing multiple instances of a program. This command is particularly useful for stopping services, managing user sessions, or terminating runaway processes.

General Syntax

The following is the general syntax for working with killall command:

killall [ -Z CONTEXT ] [ -u USER ] [ -y TIME ] [ -o TIME ] [ -eIgiqrvw ] [ -s SIGNAL | -SIGNAL ] NAME...

1. The command below will begin the process yes and yield its standard output to /dev/null. What we are keen on here, is the second line which contains the accompanying data “[1]” ( work ID ) and “16017” the real PID. On your Linux OS, you can run numerous cycles at some random time and each cycle, contingent upon the client benefits can be ended utilizing either kill or killall orders.

$ yes > /dev/null &

2. From the above you can see that we have begun extra cycles utilizing yes order and that each cycle has diverse PID. To list all your measures forked from the current shell use “jobs” command:

$ jobs

3. The contrast between kill versus killall commands is that with kill order we can end just a solitary cycle at that point, though with killall order we can end numerous cycles dependent on given models, for example, process group, process age, or client privilege. Now, we will use “kill” command to terminate the process with PID “16022”:

$ sudo kill 16022

Now, from the above command, we have terminated the process with PID 16022, and it was processed no. [4]. We can also verify the command execution by giving the “jobs” command:

4. Ending each cycle individually can end up being hard and repetitive work. We should see whether we can get some assistance by utilizing killall order and process cycle name:

$ sudo killall yes

Now, we can easily observe that all processes running under the name “yes” have been terminated successfully.

The following are the differences between kill and killall:

How do I kill a stuck process in Linux?

Use sudo kill -9 [PID] to forcefully terminate a stuck process by its PID.

What is the alternative to killall?

The kill command serves as an alternative to killall, allowing you to kill processes by name.

What is killall -9?

The killall -9 process_name command sends the SIGKILL signal to all instances of the specified process, forcefully terminating them.

What signal does killall send?

By default, killall sends the SIGTERM signal, which requests a graceful shutdown of processes.

What is the default killall signal?

The default signal sent by killall is SIGTERM.

How to see all processes in Linux?

Use ps aux or top to view all running processes in Linux.

What is the function of killall command?

The killall command is used to terminate all instances of a specified process by name.