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xkill - kill a client by its X resource
xkill
[-display displayname] [-id resource] [-button number] [-frame] [-all]
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.
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(7x)
, xwininfo(1)
, XKillClient and XGetPointerMapping
in the Xlib Programmers Manual, KillClient in the X Protocol Specification
Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium
Dana Chee, Bellcore
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