How to Kill a Process by Name in Linux: A Quick Guide

In Linux, it’s common to run into situations where you need to stop a process that’s stuck or causing issues, like when Firefox doesn’t close properly. Rather than searching for the process ID (PID), which changes every time, killing a process by name is often quicker and easier. In this post, we’ll explore different ways to accomplish this using various commands and options.

1. Using pkill to Kill Processes by Name

The pkill command allows you to terminate processes by name directly, without needing the PID. Here’s how:

pkill firefox

This command will find all processes named “firefox” and terminate them.

Important Options:

• -f: Match the entire command line, not just the process name.

pkill -f firefox

The -f flag is useful if the process name isn’t enough and you want to ensure you’re targeting the correct command line. This option is particularly useful for applications running through frameworks or scripts.

2. Using pgrep and kill Together

Sometimes, it’s safer to verify which processes you’re about to terminate. The pgrep command helps list process IDs based on a pattern.

pgrep -f firefox

After confirming the output, you can then use pkill -f firefox or the following method:

kill -9 $(pgrep -f firefox)

The kill -9 command forces the termination, which can be helpful for stubborn processes.

3. Killing Processes with killall

The killall command also terminates processes by name:

killall firefox

This command sends the SIGTERM signal to all processes with the specified name. If you want to send a different signal, specify it with the -s flag:

killall -s KILL firefox

The killall command is a straightforward option but can be limited on certain distributions, which may not recognize processes with only partial name matches.

4. Specifying User to Limit the Scope

For systems with multiple users, you might want to limit the kill command to processes belonging to your user. This can be achieved by specifying the -u option with pkill:

pkill -f -u $USER firefox

This command ensures that only your own processes are terminated, keeping the system safe for other users.

Here’s a quick comparison of commands for killing processes by name:

Command	Description
pkill firefox	Kills all processes named “firefox”.
pkill -f firefox	Kills processes matching the full command.
killall firefox	Sends a SIGTERM to all “firefox” processes.
kill -9 $(pgrep -f firefox)	Force kills processes after confirming.
pkill -f -u $USER firefox	Kills user-specific processes by name.

With these commands, you can quickly handle unresponsive applications or system processes without needing to search for specific PIDs each time.