Pkill
Command-line utility for signaling processes
title: "Pkill" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["unix-process--and-task-management-related-software"] description: "Command-line utility for signaling processes" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pkill" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Command-line utility for signaling processes ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | pkill |
| operating system | Unix, Unix-like |
| platform | Cross-platform |
| genre | Command |
| :: |
| name = pkill | logo = | screenshot = | screenshot size = | caption = | author = | developer = | released = | latest release version = | latest release date = | operating system = Unix, Unix-like | platform = Cross-platform | genre = Command | license = | website = (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: ::code[lang=bash] pkill -n acroread ::
Send a USR1 signal to process: ::code[lang=bash] pkill -USR1 acroread ::
References
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::