Exit Google Chrome from terminal

Question

Is there a way to cause google-chrome to quit, from the terminal, besides using killall google-chrome?
I would like to be able to close it from a script without killing it.

@Zoredache That it results in different behavior from exiting, and that Chrome uses multiple processes, one of which (the sandbox) is setuid root. — Gilles 'SO- stop being evil', Mar 13 '12 at 21:50

Keith Cascio · Answer 1 · 2014-12-16T20:37:31.873

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This command exits the chrome process tree gracefully, in all window managers:

pkill --oldest chrome

or if you prefer:

/usr/bin/pkill --oldest --signal TERM -f chrome

Details:

gracefully means: avoid seeing “Google Chrome didn't shut down correctly. To repoen ...” next time chrome starts
chrome browser (e.g. version 39.0.2171.95) traps and gracefully handles SIGTERM
signal a single process, the root of chrome’s process tree, hence --oldest
SIGTERM is the same as signal 15, hence --signal TERM, or just leave it out since SIGTERM is the default signal
wmctrl works with Unity and some others but it does not work with all window managers
wmctrl -c closes one window at a time so to close all chrome windows you would need something like while wmctrl -c 'Google Chrome'; do sleep 0.2; done

edited Dec 16 '14 at 20:37

answered Dec 16 '14 at 05:38

Keith Cascio

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I assume I am using an old version of pkill as `--oldest` is not an option: using `-o` works. – Ken Sharp Feb 10 '15 at 16:01
the `-f` argument to pkill is not working for me. I have some other processes running as root that happen to have the word chrome in their command lines, so I just get permission denied. Without the `-f`, it works perfectly though. – Brian Minton Mar 04 '15 at 17:13
This still makes me see 'didn't shut down corrently' – xtrinch May 12 '17 at 09:06
In Ubuntu 18.04, how could I make this to be executed immediately after triggering a restart or a shutdown?. – Jaime Hablutzel May 25 '19 at 19:12

score 13 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 24 '19 at 22:14

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Perhaps wmctrl could be of some assistance. You could use the -c option that closes a window gracefully:

wmctrl -c chrome

The string chrome is matched against the window titles. Note that the window might not close if some message pops-up (e.g. when you have multiple tabs open).

edited Oct 24 '19 at 22:14

joshuakcockrell

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answered Mar 13 '12 at 18:47

Baldrick

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This option works flawless, but it required the installation of `wmctrl`. – slybloty Mar 14 '12 at 00:06
wmctrl cannot close system tray "Chrome Apps". `pkill -o chrome` does though. – Ken Sharp Feb 10 '15 at 16:00
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Only works on X Window Manager. Not a future proof solution – BrnVrn Sep 06 '22 at 06:32

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 11 '14 at 12:38

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This works for me:

killall --quiet --signal 15 -- chrome

Note that I'm using a rather verbose command to keep it readable in the code, of course you could also issue:

killall -q -15 chrome

answered Nov 11 '14 at 12:38

Fleshgrinder

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score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

On Mac OS X, use this instead

pkill -a -i "Google Chrome"

What it does is to look for a Google Chrome process, and kill all of its parent processes as well.

From the pkill manual

    -a          Include process ancestors in the match list.  By default, the
                current pgrep or pkill process and all of its ancestors are
                excluded (unless -v is used).
    -i          Ignore case distinctions in both the process table and the
                supplied pattern.

As per @keith-cascio ' s answer, you can try to kill the oldest process instead. Note that this did not work for me.

pkill -o -i "Google Chrome"

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 13 '12 at 18:42

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try:

kill -3 <pid_of_chrome>

This will send a "QUIT" signal to chrome, which, depending on your window manager, will be what it is usually sent when asked to close.

answered Mar 13 '12 at 18:42

Blackle Mori

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This acts just like `kill` or `killall` where Chrome sees it as a crash, and asking to restore. – slybloty Mar 13 '12 at 18:54
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try 15 instead of 3, then – Blackle Mori Mar 13 '12 at 19:40
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Actually, `SIGQUIT` is not usually sent to applications when asked to close (I don't know any WMs that do this). `WM_DELETE_WINDOW` is the standard. – Chris Down Mar 13 '12 at 20:29
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@blacklemon67 `kill -15 ` did what I was looking for. But, `google-chrome` has multiple pids and it took a few tried to actually get the right one. – slybloty Mar 14 '12 at 00:26

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 08 '20 at 00:15

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For Ubuntu just simply enter:

exit google-chrome

answered Oct 08 '20 at 00:15

Anna

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The `exit` verb takes an optional status _value_, not a command – roaima Oct 08 '20 at 08:26

Exit Google Chrome from terminal

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