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vers kill

Delete one or more VMs by ID or alias.
This operation is irreversible - deleted VMs lose all state including filesystem contents, memory, and running processes.

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Usage

vers kill                           # Delete current HEAD VM
vers kill [vm-id|vm-alias]...       # Delete one or more VMs
vers kill -r vm-with-children       # Delete VM and all its children
The kill command is an alias for vers delete. Both commands work identically.

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Options

OptionDescription
--yes, -ySkip confirmation prompts
--recursive, -rRecursively delete all children

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Examples

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Delete VMs

# Delete current HEAD VM
vers kill

# Delete specific VM
vers kill vm-123abc

# Delete multiple VMs
vers kill my-dev-vm my-test-vm vm-456def

# Delete VM with children recursively
vers kill -r vm-with-children

# Delete without confirmation prompt
vers kill -y vm-123abc

# Delete recursively without confirmation
vers kill -y -r vm-with-children

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How it works

The kill command provides different deletion strategies:

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VM deletion

  • Single VM: Deletes the specified VM and handles HEAD cleanup
  • Multiple VMs: Processes each VM sequentially with error handling
  • HEAD VM: Optimized path for deleting the current HEAD VM
  • Recursive deletion: Deletes VM and all its children when using -r

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Confirmation prompts

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Basic deletion confirmation

vers kill vm-abc123
Warning: You are about to delete VM 'vm-abc123'
Are you sure you want to proceed? [y/N]:

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HEAD impact warning

Warning: This will clear the current HEAD
Do you want to continue? [y/N]:

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Error handling

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VM with children

vers kill vm-parent
Cannot delete VM - it has child VMs that would be orphaned.

This VM has child VMs. Deleting it would leave them without a parent,
which could cause data inconsistency.

To delete this VM and all its children, use the --recursive (-r) flag:
  vers kill vm-parent -r

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Failed operations

For multiple targets, the command provides detailed summaries: 
vers kill vm-1 vm-2 vm-3
Processing 3 VMs...
✓ VM 'vm-1' deleted successfully
✗ FAILED to resolve VM 'vm-2': not found
✓ VM 'vm-3' deleted successfully

Summary: 2 VMs succeeded, 1 VMs failed

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HEAD cleanup

When deletion affects your current HEAD VM: 
vers kill vm-current
✓ VM 'vm-current' deleted successfully
HEAD cleared (VM was deleted)
The command automatically cleans up local state when deleting VMs that were pointed to by HEAD.

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Prerequisites

  • VMs must exist and be accessible
  • For recursive deletion, you must own all child VMs
  • Network connectivity to perform deletion operations

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See Also