nkillall(8)							   nkillall(8)



NAME
       nkillall - send signals to all processes;  write messages to users

SYNOPSIS
       nkillall -[vq] [-s secs] [-M|W mesg] [-signum] [-E prog [arg[s]]

DESCRIPTION
       nkillall sends signals to all processes skipping it's own PID.  It is a
       simple program that does	 not  use  /proc  FS.	It  uses  kill(2)  and
       execve(2)  syscalls.   It  is designed as a replacement of the SysVinit
       killall5(8) command.


USAGE
       It is not allowed to use -h (signal SIGHUP) as first  option!   If  you
       really want this then start: nkillall -s0 -hup ...


       -v     verbose mode;  -vv means more verbose

       -q     quiet mode;  ignores SIGINT signal;  Ctrl-C does't work!

       -s     secs
	      sleep secs

       -M     mesg
	      write  mesg  to stdout.  The message can include escape symbols:
	      \NNN, \a, \b, \e, \c, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v, \\ like in C language.
	      Last message can be written again with -M% or -W%.  Example:

	      nkillall -M'\n\aPlease logout!  The system is going down...' \
		       -W% -s2 -W% -s4 -W% -s12 \
		       -M'\tSending TERM signal' -term ...

       -W     mesg
	      write  mesg  to all logged users.	 The syntax is the same as -M.
	      nkillall determines logged users by looking at /var/run/utmp.

	      In my opinion /var/run/utmp is unreliable!  Other programs  like
	      who(1),  wall(1), login(1) also use this file.  If you feel that
	      yours is insecure, better don't use the -W option.


       -signum
	      send all processes the singal signum.   Some  important  signals
	      can  be  encodded.  For example SIGTERM can be typed with -15 or
	      -term.  Only the first letter is important!  The command kill -l
	      lists the signal numbers.

       -E     /path/to/program [arg[s]]
	      execve(2)	 the program with some arguments.  This option must be
	      last!  The program will have the same PID as nkillall.


NOTE
       The options are applied immediately.  Their position is important.  The
       next two examples work differently:

       nkillall -q -s2 -M'sending signal SIGTERM' -15 ...
       nkillall -s2 -M'sending signal SIGTERM' -15 -q ...

       Use the options -v[v] -q after nkillall immediately.


WARNING
       nkillall	 also  kills  the  script  in which it is included.  Use it in
       scripts like:

       #!/bin/sh
       before commands
       exec nkillall [options] -E/path/to/prog prog_opt(s)

       An example of wrong usage is the following:

       #!/bin/sh
       before commands
       nkillall ...
       after commands


EXAMPLES
       nkillall -M'Sending all processes SIGTERM ...' -s2 -15 \
		-M'Sending all processes SIGKILL ...' -s6 -9 \
		-s1 -E /path/to/program arg1 arg2 ...

       nkillall -v -s1 -15 -cont -s6 -kill -s1 -E/path/to/prog arg(s) ...

       nkillall -vv -pause -s59 -continue -M'Hello world!'


FILES
       /var/run/utmp


AUTHOR
       nkillall is included in ninit package and can be downloaded from
       http://riemann.frmi.uni-sofia.bg/ninit/


SEE ALSO
       ninit(8), kill(1), kill(2), execve(2), utmp(5)
       init(8), killall5(8)



				 Dec 28, 2009			   nkillall(8)