xkill - kill a client by its X resource
xkill [-display
displayname] [-id
resource] [-button
number] [-frame] [-all] [-version]
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.
- -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 leftmost 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
discouraged.
- -frame
- This option indicates that xkill should ignore the standard
conventions for finding top-level client windows (which are typically
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.
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.
- Button
- Specifies a specific pointer button number or the word
"any" to use when selecting windows.
X(7),
xwininfo(1),
XKillClient(3),
XGetPointerMapping(3), KillClient in the X
Protocol Specification
Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium
Dana Chee, Bellcore