Xkill is a
utility program distributed with the
X Window System
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.
X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. The X protocol has been at ...
that instructs the X server to forcefully terminate its connection to a client, thus "killing" the client. When run with no
command-line argument
A command-line interface (CLI) is a means of interacting with software via command (computing), commands each formatted as a line of text. Command-line interfaces emerged in the mid-1960s, on computer terminals, as an interactive and more user ...
s, the program displays a special cursor (usually a
crosshair
A reticle or reticule, also known as a graticule or crosshair, is a pattern of fine lines or markings built into the eyepiece of an optical device such as a telescopic sight, spotting scope, theodolite, optical microscope or the screen of ...
or a
skull and crossbones) and displays a message such as
Select the window whose client you wish to kill with button 1 ...
If a non-
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...
window is then selected, the server will close its connection to the client that created that window, and the window will be destroyed.
Xkill is not intended to be used as a routine way to terminate X client programs, but only as a last resort to abort malfunctioning or malicious clients.
Unlike
kill, xkill does not request that the client process, which may be running on a different machine, be terminated. In fact, the process can continue running without an X connection. Most clients, however, do abort when their X connections are unexpectedly closed.
Xkill has been cited as an example of a program with a simple and appealing
user interface
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...
. Its mode of operation has been summed up as "Just click the bad thing with the skull and it dies."
[{{cite web , url=http://www.venturecake.com/10-ideas-to-improve-gnome/ , title=10 ideas to improve GNOME , access-date=2007-07-12 , last=MacCana , first=Mike , date=2007-06-28 , work=VentureCake , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070731042624/http://www.venturecake.com/10-ideas-to-improve-gnome/, archive-date=2007-07-31]
References
X Window programs