# Java processes will not Force Quit on Mac

**URL:** https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561
**Category:** Technical Support & Bugs
**Created:** [October 4, 2016, 1:48am UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561 "2016-10-04T01:48:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/u/azakaria)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2016, 1:48am UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561/1 "2016-10-04T01:48:57Z")

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Model: iMac Mid 2011  
OS: OS X El Capitan v. 10.11.6  
CPU: 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7  
Memory: 16 Gb  
Video: AMD Radeon How was your day? 6970M  
VASSAL: 3.2.16  
Java: 1.8.0\_101-b13  
Module: Star Wars X-WIng Miniatures Game 6.2.0

When I play X-Wing, multiple processes appear with the Vassal logo and the title “java”. I cannot Force Quit these processes. In fact, I cannot shut down my Mac normally when this happens. I have to hold down the power button to perform a hard shutdown.

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### Author: ![Malnorma](https://forum.vassalengine.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@Malnorma](https://forum.vassalengine.org/u/Malnorma)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2016, 3:01am UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561/2 "2016-10-04T03:01:05Z")

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When you say you can’t force quit them… do you mean via the dock, via cmd-option-esc, or via Activity Monitor? I have had cases where the first two didn’t work properly, but Activity Monitor should always be able to do it. You should also be able to do it from the Terminal, with `sudo killall -KILL java`

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### Author: ![azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/u/azakaria)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2016, 12:36pm UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561/3 "2016-10-04T12:36:43Z")

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I’ve tried the first two approaches. I’ve had trouble with Activity Monitor identifying the offending processes. Let me give sudo a try. Thanks.

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### Author: ![Malnorma](https://forum.vassalengine.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@Malnorma](https://forum.vassalengine.org/u/Malnorma)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2016, 1:23pm UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561/4 "2016-10-04T13:23:56Z")

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I should mention that the killall command should kill any and all instances of java VMs active at the time. It’s pretty rare to see on a Mac, but if you are running another java app it will get killed as well. Just something to be aware of, before you reach for the sawn-off shotgun 🙂

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### Author: ![azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/u/azakaria)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561/5 "2016-10-04T14:42:36Z")

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I ended up trying this from another website, and it worked:

ps ax | grep “java.\*$1” | grep -v grep | awk ‘{ print "kill " $1 }’ | sh

I had to download the Java Development environment. It closed out all the active Java processes (and blanked out the screen for a few seconds, which was kinda scary). I haven’t had any issues since then. Weird. Maybe some Java process was running in the background that wasn’t allowing the others to close.

Thanks for your suggestions.

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### Author: ![Malnorma](https://forum.vassalengine.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@Malnorma](https://forum.vassalengine.org/u/Malnorma)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561/6 "2016-10-04T21:25:00Z")

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Outside of a shell function or script where you actually provide a value for $1, that is the most convoluted way I have seen so far to run “killall” 🙂

I would change the two greps to just this though:  
grep “[j]ava.\*$1”

grep -v grep can exclude other processes by mistake (as a bad example, maybe a commandline includes “logreport”).

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### Author: ![azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/u/azakaria)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2016, 9:50pm UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561/7 "2016-10-04T21:50:27Z")

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I think it was actually designed to be used as a script, and I had no idea what I was doing.

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### Author: ![azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/u/azakaria)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561/8 "2016-10-05T23:30:17Z")

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Same problem again. Tried your sudo killall -KILL java and got “No matching processes were found”.

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### Author: ![Malnorma](https://forum.vassalengine.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@Malnorma](https://forum.vassalengine.org/u/Malnorma)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2016, 11:27am UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561/9 "2016-10-06T11:27:10Z")

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But there are java processes showing in Activity Monitor? I just tried the command here to be sure, and it definitely terminated my vassal instances. No chance of a typo in the command?

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### Author: ![azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@azakaria](https://forum.vassalengine.org/u/azakaria)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2016, 4:25pm UTC](https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/java-processes-will-not-force-quit-on-mac/8561/10 "2016-10-06T16:25:18Z")

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When I right-click on the Vassal icons in my dock, one says “Vassal” and the rest say “java”. But I don’t see anything in my Activity Monitor that says “java”.
