Linux - Find and Kill Running Processes in Linux

Find and Kill Running Processes in Linux

• Find and Kill Running Processes in Linux
  • Process
  • Find Process PID
  • Kill Processes
  • Kill Multiple Process

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Process

process on a Linux system

• a running occurrence of an application/program
• processes as tasks executing in the operating system.

process states:

• Running: meaning the process is either executing or it is just set to be executed.
  • When a process is running, it keeps on shifting from one state to another
• Waiting: meaning that the process is waiting for an event or for a system resource to carry out a task.
  • two types of waiting process
  • interruptible: A waiting process that can be interrupted by signals is called Interruptible.
  • uninterruptible: a waiting process that is directly waiting on hardware conditions and cannot be interrupted under any conditions.
• Stopped: the process has been stopped, using a signal.
• Zombie: the process has been stopped abruptly and is dead.

When killing processes, the kill command is used to send a named signal to a named process or groups of processes. The default signal is the TERM signal.

• the kill command can be a built-in function in many modern shells or external located at /bin/kill.

Find Process PID

In Linux every process on a system has a PID (Process Identification Number).

pidof processname
pidof firefox
pidof chrome

Kill Processes

ps -ef | grep xxx
lsof -i

kill pid_number

# send a named signal to the process by using the signal name:
kill -SIGTERM pid_number

# Using the signal number to kill a process:
kill -9 pid_number

Kill Multiple Process

kill -9 pid_number1, pid_number2, pid_number3

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