pgrep and pkill

pgrep and pkill are two useful commands that go well together. You can list processes using ps and kill them using kill. However, I find it easier to use pgrep and pkill when I want to find and kill a process.

pgrep

• To list all the PIDs of a user:

$ pgrep --uid joe
$ pgrep -u joe

• To list the PID and the corresponding process name for a user:

$ pgrep --uid joe --list-name
$ pgrep -u joe -l

• To list the PID and the corresponding full command line for a user:

$ pgrep --uid joe --list-full
$ pgrep -u joe -a

This is extremely useful because to find Python scripts or commandline arguments to a program that is running as a process.

• To list the PID whose process name matches input pattern:

$ pgrep foobar

• To list the PID and process names that match input pattern:

$ pgrep -l foobar

• To list the PID and command line of processes that match input pattern:

$ pgrep -a foobar

pkill

pkill is used to send a signal to or kill processes by using a pattern that matches a process name or its command line. pkill takes many arguments that are similar to pgrep.

• To kill all processes of current user that matches input pattern:

$ pkill foobar

• To kill all processes of current user that matches input pattern in its command line:

$ pkill -f foobar

Tried with: Ubuntu 16.04