# Linux commands: killall

> Learn how the Linux killall command sends a signal to every process with a name, so killall top ends all running top instances, and how to set the signal.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2020-09-10 | Topics: [CLI](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/cli/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/linux-command-killall/

Similar to the `kill` command, `killall` instead of sending a signal to a specific process id will send the signal to multiple processes at once.

This is the syntax:

```bash
killall <name>
```

where `name` is the name of a program. For example you can have multiple instances of the `top` program running, and `killall top` will terminate them all.

You can specify the signal, like with `kill` (and check the `kill` tutorial to read more about the specific kinds of signals we can send), for example:

```bash
killall -HUP top
```

> This command works on Linux, macOS, WSL, and anywhere you have a UNIX environment