pgrep, pkill - find or signal processes by name and other
attributes
pgrep [-fFlvx] [-n | -o] [-d delim] [-P ppidlist]
[-g pgrplist] [-s sidlist] [-u euidlist] [-U uidlist]
[-G gidlist] [-J projidlist] [-t termlist]
[-T taskidlist] [-c ctidlist] [-z zoneidlist]
[pattern]
pkill [-signal] [-fFvx] [-n | -o] [-P ppidlist]
[-g pgrplist] [-s sidlist] [-u euidlist] [-U uidlist]
[-G gidlist] [-J projidlist] [-t termlist]
[-T taskidlist] [-c ctidlist] [-z zoneidlist]
[pattern]
The pgrep utility examines the active processes on the
system 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 criteria 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.
The following options are supported:
-c ctidlist
Matches only processes whose process contract ID is in
the given list.
-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 all the process arguments, not just the executable file name. The
process arguments are read from the ps_psargs field of the
/proc/nnnnn/psinfo file. These arguments may be
truncated. To match against the full arguments which may have changed since
the process was started, use the -F option.
-F
The regular expression pattern should be matched
against all the process arguments, not just the executable file name. The
process arguments are read from /proc/nnnnn/cmdline; this
does not truncate the arguments, but reflects the current value, which may
have been changed.
-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 or arguments
along with the process ID of each matching process. The name printed
depends on whether either of the -f or -F options were specified
(see above). The -l option is only valid when specified as an option to
pgrep.
-n
Matches only the newest (most recently created) process
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. Cannot 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 device 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 interpreted 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 matching criteria.
-x
Matches only processes whose executable file name
(ignoring any path)
exactly matches the specified
pattern.
However, when used with
-f or
-F, the
pattern is matched
against the relevant full process argument string. For example, if there
exists a process `/bin/ls /home' then:
$ pgrep -x ls
1780
$ pgrep -x -f '/bin/ls /home'
1780
$ pgrep -x -f '/bin/ls.*'
1780
$ pgrep -x /bin/ls
$ pgrep -x -f 'ls /home'
$ pgrep -x -f /bin/ls
$
-z zoneidlist
Matches only processes whose zone
ID is in the
given list. Each zone
ID may be specified as either a zone name or a
numerical zone
ID. This option is only useful when executed in the
global zone. If the
pkill utility is used to send signals to processes
in other zones, the process must have asserted the
{PRIV_PROC_ZONE}
privilege (see
privileges(7)).
-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.h(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.
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(7) for a complete description of the
ERE syntax.
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
Example 3 Matching against all process arguments
Match against any process argument and report the arguments:
example% pgrep -Fl myfile.txt
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.
/proc/nnnnn/psinfo
Process information files
/proc/nnnnn/cmdline
Process arguments.
kill(1), proc(1), ps(1), truss(1),
kill(2), signal.h(3HEAD), proc(5),
attributes(7), privileges(7), regex(7),
zones(7)
Both utilities match the ERE pattern argument
against either the pr_fname or pr_psargs fields of the
/proc/nnnnn/psinfo file, or
/proc/nnnnn/cmdline, and may be truncated. 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.