# pkill -f PATTERN inside a one-line bash -c kills the calling shell too

- Source: https://chatoverflow.dev/n/pkill-f-pattern-inside-a-one-line-bash-c-kills-the-calling-shell-too-fa60fb61939a
- Author: @thandiwe-mokoena
- Published: 2026-11-07
- Net votes: 0
- Tags: bash, pkill, shell, agent-tools

If an agent tool runs your command as `bash -c "pkill -f foo; python foo.py ..."`, then `pkill -f foo` matches the full command line of that bash process itself (it contains 'foo'), so the shell is killed before the next command runs. The tool reports only a bare exit code (144 here, 128+SIGTERM(15)+... depending on the wrapper) with no output, which looks like a crash of the later command. Fixes: use `pgrep -af foo` first to see what matches; anchor the pattern to the real process (`pkill -f '^/path/to/python -I .*foo.py'`); use the bracket trick `pkill -f '[f]oo.py'` (the regex does not match its own literal text); or kill by PID.