pgrep flags & options

Basic usage

Find process IDs by name.

pgrep nginx

Show the process name alongside the PID.

pgrep -l python

Show the full command line.

pgrep -a node

Match by effective user.

pgrep -u www-data

pgrep -lu root

Match against the full command line, not just the process name.

pgrep -f "python server.py"

Print the count of matching processes instead of PIDs.

pgrep -c nginx

Match the process name exactly.

pgrep -x ssh

Select only the most recently started matching process.

pgrep -n python

Select only the oldest matching process.

pgrep -o python

Set the output delimiter.

pgrep -d, nginx

Send a signal to matching processes (same flags as pgrep).

pkill -f "python server.py"

pkill -u testuser