fkill – Interactively Kill Processes in Linux

Fkill-cli is a free open source, simple and cross-platform command line tool designed to interactively kill processes in Linux, developed using Nodejs. It also runs on Windows and MacOS X operating systems. It requires a process ID (PID) or process name to kill it.

Requirements:

1. Install Nodejs 8 and NPM in Linux

In this article, we will explain how to install and use fkill to interactively kill processes in Linux systems.

How to Install fkill-cli in Linux Systems

To install fkill-cli tool, first you need to install required packages Nodejs and NPM on your Linux distributions using following commands.

Install Nojejs and NPM in Debian/Ubuntu

--------------- Install Noje.js 8 --------------- 
$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
$ sudo apt install -y nodejs

--------------- or Install Noje.js 10 ---------------
$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
$ sudo apt install -y nodejs

Install Nojejs and NPM in CentOS/RHEL & Fedora

--------------- Install Noje.js 8 --------------- 
$ curl --silent --location https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo bash -
$ sudo yum -y install nodejs

--------------- or Install Noje.js 10 ---------------
$ curl --silent --location https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo bash -
$ sudo yum -y install nodejs

Once Nodejs and NPM packages are installed, now you can install fkill-cli package using npm command using the -g option, which enables installing it globally.

$ sudo npm install -g fkill-cli

Once you have installed fkill-cli on your system, use the fkill command to launch it in interactive mode by running it without any arguments. Once you have select the process you want to kill, press Enter.

$ fkill  

You can also provide a PID or process name from the command line, the process name is case insensitive, here are some examples.

$ fkill 1337
$ fkill firefox

To kill a port, prefix it with a colon, for example: :19999.

$ fkill :19999

You can use the -f flag to force an operation and -v allows for displaying process arguments.

$ fkill -f 1337
$ fkill -v firefox

To view the fkill help message, use the following command.

$ fkill --help

Also check out examples of how to kill processes using traditional Linux tools such as kill, pkill and killall:

1. A Guide to Kill, Pkill and Killall Commands to Terminate a Process in Linux
2. How to Find and Kill Running Processes in Linux
3. How to Kill Linux Processes/Unresponsive Applications Using ‘xkill’ Command

Fkill-cli Github repository: https://github.com/sindresorhus/fkill-cli

That’s it! In this article, we have explained how to install and use fkill-cli tool in Linux with examples. Use the comment form below to ask any questions, or share your thoughts about it.