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