User Commands pgrep(1)
NAME
pgrep, pkill - find or signal processes by name and other
attributesSYNOPSIS
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 sys-
tem 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 matchesprocesses whose attributes match the logical AND of the cri-
teria 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 maySunOS 5.11 Last change: 6 May 2004 1
User Commands pgrep(1)be specified as the first command line option to pkill.
OPTIONS The following options are supported:-c ctidlist Matches only processes whose process con-
tract 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 argumentstring (obtained from the pr_psargs field
of the /proc/nnnnn/psinfo file). If no -f
option is specified, the expression ismatched only against the name of the exe-
cutable 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 orpkill 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 fromthe pr_psargs or pr_fname field, depending
on whether the -f option was specified (see
above). The -l option is only valid when
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 6 May 2004 2
User Commands pgrep(1) specified as an option to pgrep.-n Matches only the newest (most recently
created) process that meets all other specified matching criteria. Cannot be usedwith option -o.
-o Matches only the oldest (earliest created)
process that meets all other specified matching criteria. Cannot be used withoption -n.
-P ppidlist Matches only processes whose parent process
ID is in the given list.-s sidlist Matches only processes whose process ses-
sion ID is in in the given list. If ID 0 is included in the list, this is interpretedas the session ID of the pgrep or pkill
process.-t termlist Matches only processes which are associated
with a terminal in the given list. Eachterminal is specified as the suffix follow-
ing "/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 ofthe 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.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 6 May 2004 3
User Commands pgrep(1)-v Reverses the sense of the matching. Matches
all processes except those which meet the specified matching criteria.-x Considers only processes whose argument
string or executable file name exactlymatches the specified pattern to be match-
ing processes. The pattern match is con-
sidered to be exact when all characters in the process argument string or executable file name match the pattern.-z zoneidlist Matches only processes whose zone ID is in
the given list. Each zone ID may be speci-
fied as either a zone name or a numerical zone ID. This option is only useful whenexecuted in the global zone. If the pkill
utility is used to send signals to processes in other zones, the process musthave asserted the {PRIV_PROC_ZONE}
privilege (see privileges(5)).-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 numberas a decimal value. The -signal option is
only valid when specified as the firstoption 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(5) for a complete description of the ERE syntax.EXAMPLES
Example 1 Obtaining a Process ID Obtain the process ID of sendmail:SunOS 5.11 Last change: 6 May 2004 4
User Commands pgrep(1)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 filesATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWcs ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
kill(1), proc(1), ps(1), truss(1), kill(2), signal.h(3HEAD), proc(4), attributes(5), privileges(5), regex(5), zones(5)SunOS 5.11 Last change: 6 May 2004 5
User Commands pgrep(1) NOTES Both utilities match the ERE pattern argument against eitherthe pr_fname or pr_psargs fields of the /proc/nnnnn/psinfo
files. The lengths of these strings are limited according to definitions in. 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 orpkill.
The current pgrep or pkill process will never consider
itself a potential match.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 6 May 2004 6