The Problem
Unable to remove a user and userdel throws the below error:
# userdel -r username userdel: user username is currently used by process xxx
The Solution
New child processes are being created every time the ‘userdel’ command is run and hence unable to remove the user.
You can use the below commands to forcefully remove the user.
# killall -TERM -u username # userdel -f username
The -f would forcefully remove this user, including the user’s home directory/mail (if any). So, use this option only if you are aware of what gets removed for this specific user. When using -f option, you need not use the -r option.