gkill

fast interactive process killer for linux

features

• /proc filesystem scanning
• regex pattern matching (case-insensitive by default)
• multi-process selection (1 3 or 1,3 syntax)
• emergency mode — top 3 ram + top 3 cpu consumers at a glance
• system process warnings (uid=0 processes)
• permission filtering (only shows killable processes)
• race condition protection (verifies process before kill)
• protected pid safety (won't kill init/kthreadd)
• sigterm (default) or sigkill support

installation

cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/gkill /usr/local/bin/

usage

# search, select, confirm
gkill firefox

# select multiple processes at once
gkill python   # then enter: 1 3  or  1,3  at the prompt

# regex patterns
gkill --regex "chrom(e|ium)"
gkill --regex "python.*server"

# kill all matches (with confirmation)
gkill --all node

# force kill first match without confirmation (requires exactly one match)
gkill --force chrome

# use sigkill instead of sigterm
gkill firefox --sigkill
gkill firefox -9

# emergency mode — shows top 3 ram + top 3 cpu consumers
gkill -e

emergency mode

gkill -e scans all your processes and shows the top 6 resource consumers, labeled by why they appear:

top resource consumers:

   1. pid  1234  [me]      [ram+cpu]    3.8 gb   2:14:05  /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
   2. pid  5678  [me]      [ram    ]  512.0 mb   0:01:22  rustc
   3. pid  9012  [me]      [ram    ]  210.3 mb   0:00:04  cliapp
   4. pid  3456  [me]      [cpu    ]   45.0 mb   8:33:11  cargo build --release
   5. pid  7890  [me]      [cpu    ]   12.1 mb   3:02:44  make -j8

select one or more to kill, same as normal mode.

how it works

1. scans /proc for processes matching search string (or all processes in -e mode)
2. filters to processes you can signal (permission check via kill(pid, 0))
3. displays numbered list with pid, owner, and resource info
4. prompts for selection (supports multi-select: 1 3 or 1,3)
5. warns if any selected process is owned by root
6. confirms before killing (unless --force)
7. verifies process didn't change between selection and kill (toctou protection)
8. sends sigterm or sigkill

safety

• pids 0–2 (swapper, init, kthreadd) are never shown or killed
• only shows processes you own (unless running as root)
• warns before killing uid=0 processes
• start time verified immediately before kill to prevent pid reuse attacks
• confirmation required by default

license

use freely