ps -xa | grep node to kill specific process

Question

I am currently using the following command to get a process:

ps -xa | grep node

Which results in the following:

13611 ?        Sl     0:03 /opt/brackets/Brackets-node /opt/brackets/node-core
20713 pts/1    Sl     0:00 node --harmony app.js
20838 pts/1    S+     0:00 grep node

I use the command kill -9 20713 to kill the node --harmony app.js process.

How can I kill the node --harmony app.js every single time with one command? I am tired of typing in the process number every time.

Answer 1

Use pkill:

pkill node

This would match the other command as well, so fine tune it:

pkill -f "node --harmony app.js"

This matches the full command line (-f) exactly, so it should only hit the desired command.

Answer 2

You can use killall. The simplest syntax is:

killall "Process_name"

In you case:

killall "node --harmony app.js"

The upside of killall is that it will match the exact name so there is no chance of killing other processes unwantedly.

Although you can use -r option to express the process as a regular expression pattern like pkill.

Check man killall for more info.

Answer 3

Use an alias and your own "command word" for it.

E.G.go to your home Dir and create the file .bash_aliases

Put the following text into the file

alias nerdalert='pkill -f "node --harmony app.js"'

and then search in your home folder for your .bashrc looking for this part and make sure it's not commented out.

# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

Now type into your terminal

source /home/${USER}/.bash_aliases

and try your brand new "command" a.k.a. alias

nerdalert

Enjoy ^^