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 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)
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
should be 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

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

SEE ALSO

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 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.

January 17, 2014 PGREP(1)