pgrep(1)
NAME
pgrep, pkill - find or signal processes by name and other
attributes
SYNOPSIS
pgrep [-flvx] [-n | -o] [-d delim] [-P ppidlist] [-
g pgrplist] [-s sidlist] [-u euidlist] [-U uidlist] [-
G gidlist] [-J projidlist] [-t termlist] [-T taskidlist]
[pattern]
pkill [-signal] [-fvx] [-n | -o] [-P ppidlist] [-
g pgrplist] [-s sidlist] [-u euidlist] [-U uidlist] [-
G gidlist] [-J projidlist] [-t termlist] [-T taskidlist]
[pattern]
DESCRIPTION
The pgrep utility examines the active processes on the sys-
tem and reports the process IDs of the processes whose
attributes match the criteria specified on the command line.
Each process ID is printed as a decimal value and is
separated from the next ID by a delimiter string, which
defaults to a newline. For each attribute option, the user
can specify a set of possible values separated by commas on
the command line. For example,
pgrep -G other,daemon
matches processes whose real group ID is other OR daemon. If
multiple criteria options are specified, pgrep matches
processes whose attributes match the logical AND of the cri-
teria options. For example,
pgrep -G other,daemon -U root,daemon
matches processes whose attributes are:
(real group ID is other OR daemon) AND
(real user ID is root OR daemon)
pkill functions identically to pgrep, except that each
matching process is signaled as if by kill(1) instead of
having its process ID printed. A signal name or number may
be specified as the first command line option to pkill.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-d delim
Specifies the output delimiter string to be printed
between each matching process ID. If no -d option is
specified, the default is a newline character. The -d
option is only valid when specified as an option to
pgrep.
-f The regular expression pattern should be matched
against the full process argument string (obtained
from the pr_psargs field of the /proc/nnnnn/psinfo
file). If no -f option is specified, the expression is
matched only against the name of the executable file
(obtained from the pr_fname field of the
/proc/nnnnn/psinfo file).
-g pgrplist
Matches only processes whose process group ID is in
the given list. If group 0 is included in the list,
this is interpreted as the process group ID of the
pgrep or pkill process.
-G gidlist
Matches only processes whose real group ID is in the
given list. Each group ID may be specified as either a
group name or a numerical group ID.
-J projidlist
Matches only processes whose project ID is in the
given list. Each project ID may be specified as either
a project name or a numerical project ID.
-l Long output format. Prints the process name along with
the process ID of each matching process. The process
name is obtained from the pr_psargs or pr_fname field,
depending on whether the -f option was specified (see
above). The -l option is only valid when specified as
an option to pgrep.
-n Matches only the newest (most recently created) pro-
cess that meets all other specified matching criteria.
Cannot be used with option -o.
-o Matches only the oldest (earliest created) process
that meets all other specified matching criteria. Can-
not be used with option -n.
-P ppidlist
Matches only processes whose parent process ID is in
the given list.
-s sidlist
Matches only processes whose process session ID is in
in the given list. If ID 0 is included in the list,
this is interpreted as the session ID of the pgrep or
pkill process.
-t termlist
Matches only processes which are associated with a
terminal in the given list. Each terminal is specified
as the suffix following "/dev/" of the terminal's dev-
ice path name in /dev. For example, term/a or pts/0.
-T taskidlist
Matches only processes whose task ID is in the given
list. If ID 0 is included in the list, this is inter-
preted as the task ID of the pgrep or pkill process.
-u euidlist
Matches only processes whose effective user ID is in
the given list. Each user ID may be specified as
either a login name or a numerical user ID.
-U uidlist
Matches only processes whose real user ID is in the
given list. Each user ID may be specified as either a
login name or a numerical user ID.
-v Reverses the sense of the matching. Matches all
processes except those which meet the specified match-
ing criteria.
-x Considers only processes whose argument string or exe-
cutable file name exactly matches the specified pat-
tern to be matching processes. The pattern match is
considered to be exact when all characters in the pro-
cess argument string or executable file name match the
pattern.
-signal
Specifies the signal to send to each matched process.
If no signal is specified, SIGTERM is sent by default.
The value of signal can be one of the symbolic names
defined in signal(3HEAD) without the SIG prefix, or
the corresponding signal number as a decimal value.
The -signal option is only valid when specified as the
first option to pkill.
OPERANDS
The following operand is supported:
pattern
Specifies an Extended Regular Expression (ERE) pattern
to match against either the executable file name or
full process argument string. See regex(5) for a com-
plete description of the ERE syntax.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Obtaining a process ID
Obtain the process ID of sendmail:
example% pgrep -x -u root sendmail
283
Example 2: Terminating a process
Terminate the most recently created xterm:
example% pkill -n xterm
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 One or more processes were matched.
1 No processes were matched.
2 Invalid command line options were specified.
3 A fatal error occurred.
FILES
/proc/nnnnn/psinfo
Process information files
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWcsu |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
kill(1), proc(1), ps(1), truss(1), kill(2), signal(3HEAD),
proc(4), attributes(5), regex(5)
NOTES
Both utilities match the ERE pattern argument against either
the pr_fname or pr_psargs fields of the /proc/nnnnn/psinfo
files. The lengths of these strings are limited according to
definitions in <sys/procfs.h>. Patterns which can match
strings longer than the current limits may fail to match the
intended set of processes.
If the pattern argument contains ERE meta-characters which
are also shell meta-characters, it may be necessary to
enclose the pattern with appropriate shell quotes.
Defunct processes are never matched by either pgrep or
pkill.
The current pgrep or pkill process will never consider
itself a potential match.
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