Often perceived as an insurmountable barrier by users migrating to Linux, the command-line interface is pretty much the go-to for advanced users who value speed and efficiency above all else.
While Linux, in general, doesn’t force you to use the command line, there are some actions that are undeniably better suited for the CLI.
Why use fkill?
fkill is a free, open-source, and cross-platform CLI utility (works on Windows, macOS, and Linux) that’s all about allowing you to kill off processes.
While processes are typically terminated when an app is closed (or in an idle state in some cases), sometimes they can “hang on” and end up consuming RAM and CPU resources. In this type of scenario, killing the processes manually is recommended, and that’s exactly what fkill does.
Getting to grips with fkill
fkill is the definition of a frugal app, both in terms of resource consumption and usage. What’s even more annoying is the fact that it has hardly any documentation. However, thankfully, you can run fkill with the -help command and get a basic idea about what’s what.
Launching the app is as simple as popping open a Terminal window and running the command “fkill.” What’s most interesting about fkill is that it offers you a somewhat interactive way of killing processes. Once launched, the app instantly displays a list of all running apps and processes.
From this point onwards, you can either select the app with the arrow buttons, and press Enter to terminate the process, type the name of the process and and the “exit” command, or simply “fkill and the name of the app.” In addition, you can also use fkill to “kill” ports (i.e. “fkill :8080).
Conclusion
Ok, so, fkill is not exactly an impressive app by most accounts. Nevertheless, it works like a charm and gets the job done with minimum fuss, and it does bring a few advantages over the typical, default “kill” utilities of our OSes.
For starters, it has a semi-interactive interface (which is nice, and fast), and support for fuzzy search (which is a lot faster than the typical methods).
