XKILL(1) General Commands Manual XKILL(1)
NAME
xkill - kill a client by its X resource
SYNOPSIS
xkill [-display displayname] [-id resource] [-button number] [-frame]
[-all] [-version]
DESCRIPTION
Xkill is a utility for forcing the X server to close connections to
clients. This program is very dangerous, but is useful for aborting
programs that have displayed undesired windows on a user's screen. If
no resource identifier is given with -id, xkill will display a special
cursor as a prompt for the user to select a window to be killed. If a
pointer button is pressed over a non-root window, the server will close
its connection to the client that created the window.
OPTIONS
-display displayname
This option specifies the name of the X server to contact.
-id resource
This option specifies the X identifier for the resource whose
creator is to be aborted. If no resource is specified, xkill
will display a special cursor with which you should select a
window to be kill.
-button number
This option specifies the number of pointer button that should
be used in selecting a window to kill. If the word "any" is
specified, any button on the pointer may be used. By default,
the first button in the pointer map (which is usually the left-
most button) is used.
-all This option indicates that all clients with top-level windows on
the screen should be killed. Xkill will ask you to select the
root window with each of the currently defined buttons to give
you several chances to abort. Use of this option is highly dis-
couraged.
-frame This option indicates that xkill should ignore the standard con-
ventions for finding top-level client windows (which are typi-
cally nested inside a window manager window), and simply believe
that you want to kill direct children of the root.
-version
This option makes xkill print its version and exit without
killing anything.
CAVEATS
This command does not provide any warranty that the application whose
connection to the X server is closed will abort nicely, or even abort at
all. All this command does is to close the connection to the X server.
Many existing applications do indeed abort when their connection to the
X server is closed, but some can choose to continue.
XDEFAULTS
Button Specifies a specific pointer button number or the word "any" to
use when selecting windows.
SEE ALSO
X(7), xwininfo(1), XKillClient(3), XGetPointerMapping(3), KillClient in
the X Protocol Specification
AUTHOR
Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium
Dana Chee, Bellcore
X Version 11 xkill 1.0.6 XKILL(1)
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