pik
A command-line tool for interactively searching and killing processes with fuzzy search across multiple attributes.
What is pik?
Pik is a command-line utility that provides an interactive, fuzzy-search interface for finding and terminating processes. It enhances traditional process management tools by allowing users to search across process names, command paths, arguments, and ports before selecting and killing processes, reducing the risk of errors.
System administrators, developers, and power users who frequently manage running processes via the command line and want a safer, more intuitive alternative to commands like pkill or kill.
Developers choose Pik for its interactive fuzzy search that minimizes accidental terminations, its ability to target entire process families, and its extensive customization through config files and key bindings, offering a more user-friendly and precise process management experience.
Overview
Process Interactive Kill
Use Cases
Best For
- Safely terminating misbehaving applications or services with fuzzy search to avoid killing the wrong process.
- Managing processes by port number, such as stopping a service running on a specific port like 8080.
- Killing an entire process tree (parent and children) using the family targeting feature.
- Quickly finding processes by command-line arguments or executable paths.
- Customizing terminal-based process management with configurable key bindings and themes.
- Cross-platform process management on Linux, macOS, and Windows with consistent interactive behavior.
Not Ideal For
- Automated or scripted environments requiring non-interactive process management
- Linux systems where port information is needed but root privileges are unavailable
- Users needing advanced process monitoring, logging, or resource usage statistics
- Teams preferring minimal, zero-configuration tools without TUI overhead
Pros & Cons
Pros
Allows flexible searching by name, path, arguments, ports, or everywhere with simple prefixes like '/' or ':', making it easy to find processes quickly.
Interactive selection before killing minimizes errors, as users can navigate and confirm processes, reducing accidental terminations.
Supports killing entire process families using the '@' prefix, ensuring comprehensive termination of parent and child processes.
Configurable via TOML files with key bindings, themes, and readline-style editing, offering flexibility for user preferences.
Cons
Requires root privileges on Linux to access port information for some processes, hindering functionality without elevated access.
The tool is explicitly stated as 'still under development,' leading to potential instability, bugs, or incomplete features.
Developer primarily tests on Linux, so Windows and macOS support may be unreliable without community verification, as admitted in the README.
Frequently Asked Questions
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