How can I kill a process by name instead of PID, on Linux?

You can kill a process by its name (rather than PID) using one of the following commands:

1. killall

killall process_name

• killall sends a signal to all processes running under the given name (process_name).
• If multiple processes share the same name, all of them are terminated.

Example:

killall firefox

This kills all running instances of Firefox.

2. pkill

pkill process_name

• pkill matches partial process names by default.
• For an exact match, use pkill -x process_name (kills only processes whose name matches exactly).
• For a more forceful kill, you can add -9 (though use with caution):

  pkill -9 process_name

Important Notes

• Use with Care: killall or pkill can kill multiple processes if they share or partially match the name.
• Check Before Killing: If you want to see which processes match a name first:

  pgrep -l process_name

  This lists matching PIDs and names, letting you confirm.

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