How to force any program to close?

Question

Sometimes programs tell me I can't start it because there is already another instance of it running. Best example would be Firefox and Chromium, but this problem accounts for many applications.

I cannot find the applications PID in the running processes.

How to kill all running instances of a program, e.g. Firefox?

I tried:

ps ax | grep firefox

But everything I can find is:

8193 ?        Rl     0:08 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox

I tried:

kill 8193

But I get:

Process not found

Actually, even when Firefox is running accurately, I cannot find its instances in ps.

What did I miss?

With `killall firefox` you will kill it. – Uri Herrera Jan 10 '13 at 19:47 — Uri Herrera, Jan 10 '13 at 19:47
and add a -9 if that doesn't work – Gerhard Burger Jan 11 '13 at 12:41 — Gerhard Burger, Jan 11 '13 at 12:41
This really hasn't been asked before? – Nobody Oct 02 '16 at 13:23 — Nobody, Oct 02 '16 at 13:23

score 35 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 02 '16 at 15:49

35

The easiest solution for a program that is not responding would be:

killall firefox

and if this doesn't work

killall -9 firefox

and if this still doesn't work, reboot, nothing else will.

For other killall options, see this article on Wikipedia: Link

edited Oct 02 '16 at 15:49

Nobody

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answered Feb 25 '13 at 17:47

mcbetz

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score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 10 '13 at 19:47

7

Check if this works

kill -9 `ps -e | grep firefox | cut -b1-6`

answered Jan 10 '13 at 19:47

blvdeer

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So `ps -e | grep firefox` shows me the right process, interesting! – mcbetz Jan 10 '13 at 19:51
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actually, `pidof` is much easier than this. `pidof firefox` will get you the right proces immediately. So the the solution could be `kill -9 $(pidof firefox)`. ( the use of backticks (\`) is depracated). But I prefer Uri Herrera's solution `killall -9 firefox` which should do exactly the same. – Gerhard Burger Jan 11 '13 at 12:45
`sudo kill -9 \`ps -e | grep teamviewer | cut -b1-6\`` worked pidof did not (Ubuntu 16.04) – WiredIn Nov 01 '16 at 22:20

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 02 '16 at 16:48

Also, to add more functionality to your Ubuntu system
go into settings > keyboard > keyboard shortcuts click add to add to a new shortcut
call the command forcequit or something
the command is xkill
set the shortcut to your choice of buttons
your mouse should turn into a 'x' and it will kill any process you click on

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 23 '19 at 07:20

In certain circumstances kill and killall may not have the desired effect. This can happen, for instance, if the graphical container of a programme goes haywire. In such cases the process must be killed through xkill.

Simply open the a command line and run xkill. The mouse pointer becomes a cross and the following message appears:

Select the window whose client you wish to kill with button 1....

Then left-click with the mouse pointer on the window containing the rogue programme.

How to force any program to close?

4 Answers4