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portkill is a command-line interface tool published by ch41ned that enables users to locate and forcefully terminate processes occupying a specific local network port. Its primary purpose is to simplify a common troubleshooting and development task: identifying which process is bound to a given port on the local machine and killing that process when the port needs to be freed. This situation frequently arises in software development, system administration, and DevOps workflows, where a local server, development instance, or background service may remain attached to a port after an unexpected shutdown, preventing new processes from binding to it. Instead of manually combining operating system commands to first look up the process identifier associated with a port and then issue a separate kill command, portkill consolidates this workflow into a single dedicated utility. Typical use cases include resolving "address already in use" errors when restarting web servers or APIs, cleaning up orphaned processes left behind by crashed applications, reclaiming ports before running automated tests or continuous integration jobs, and generally managing local development environments where multiple services compete for fixed port numbers. As a command-line tool, portkill fits naturally into the developer tools and system utilities categories, and it can be invoked interactively in a terminal or incorporated into scripts and automation pipelines that require programmatic port management. The software is distributed under version 1.0.0, which is the first and currently the only published release, with a total of one version available. This initial stable release establishes the tool's core functionality of finding and force-killing processes bound to a specified local port. Users working across development, testing, or operational contexts who regularly contend with occupied ports may find portkill to be a focused solution for this recurring problem.
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