PGREP(1) User Commands 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] [-c ctidlist] [-z zoneidlist]
[pattern]


pkill [-signal] [-fvx] [-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]

DESCRIPTION

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.

OPTIONS

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
/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 arguments along
with the process ID of each matching process, depending
on how the -f option was specified. 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, the pattern is
matched against the 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.

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(7) for a complete 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

Example 3: Matching against all process arguments

Match against any process argument and report the arguments:


example% pgrep -fl myfile.txt

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


/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)

NOTES

Both utilities match the ERE pattern argument against either the pr_fname
field 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.

August 13, 2019 PGREP(1)