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Fix sp_kill README docs to match proc behavior #3886

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BrentOzar merged 1 commit into from
Apr 6, 2026
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Fix sp_kill README docs to match proc behavior #3886

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8 changes: 4 additions & 4 deletions README.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -350,25 +350,25 @@ EXEC sp_kill @SPID = 55, @ExecuteKills = 'Y';

/* Kill sleeping sessions with open transactions idle for 5+ minutes: */
EXEC sp_kill @HasOpenTran = 'Y', @SPIDState = 'S',
@RequestsOlderThanMinutes = 5, @ExecuteKills = 'Y';
@RequestsOlderThanSeconds = 300, @ExecuteKills = 'Y';

/* Show what we'd kill for a login, sorted by CPU: */
EXEC sp_kill @LoginName = 'DOMAIN\TroublesomeUser', @OrderBy = 'cpu';
```

Parameters for targeting sessions:

* @ExecuteKills = 'Y' or 'N' (default 'N') - whether to actually kill, or just show recommendations. When set to 'Y', you must also specify at least one targeting filter to prevent accidentally killing everything.
* @ExecuteKills = 'Y' or 'N' (default 'N') - whether to actually kill, or just show recommendations. When set to 'Y' with no targeting filters, all non-system sessions are killed - so always specify at least one filter to avoid killing everything.
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Copilot AI Apr 6, 2026

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The wording “all non-system sessions are killed” is a bit too absolute: sp_kill excludes the caller’s own session (s.session_id <> @OurSessionID) and never recommends/kills sessions in rollback status. Consider adjusting this sentence to match the proc’s actual eligibility rules (e.g., user sessions with session_id > 50, excluding your own and rollbacks) to avoid an apparent contradiction with the Safety features section below.

Suggested change
* @ExecuteKills = 'Y' or 'N' (default 'N') - whether to actually kill, or just show recommendations. When set to 'Y' with no targeting filters, all non-system sessions are killed - so always specify at least one filter to avoid killing everything.
* @ExecuteKills = 'Y' or 'N' (default 'N') - whether to actually kill, or just show recommendations. When set to 'Y' with no targeting filters, sp_kill can kill broadly across eligible user sessions (for example, user sessions with session_id > 50), excluding your own session and sessions already in rollback - so always specify at least one filter to avoid killing nearly everything.

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* @SPID - target a specific session ID.
* @LoginName - kill sessions belonging to this login.
* @AppName - kill sessions from this application (supports LIKE wildcards).
* @DatabaseName - kill sessions using this database.
* @HostName - kill sessions from this host.
* @LeadBlockers = 'Y' - kill only lead blockers (sessions blocking others but not blocked themselves).
* @ReadOnly = 'Y' - only kill read-only queries (SELECTs with no writes).
* @SPIDState - 'S' for sleeping sessions only, 'R' for running only, empty string for both (default).
* @SPIDState - 'S' for sleeping sessions only, 'R' for running only, NULL for both (default).
* @HasOpenTran = 'Y' - only target sessions with open transactions. Combine with @SPIDState = 'S' to catch sleeping sessions with forgotten transactions.
* @RequestsOlderThanMinutes - only target sessions whose last request started at least this many minutes ago.
* @RequestsOlderThanSeconds - only target sessions whose last request started at least this many seconds ago.
* @OmitLogin - exclude sessions belonging to this login from kill recommendations.
* @OrderBy - sort order for kill recommendations: duration (default), cpu, reads, writes, tempdb, transactions. Useful when you want to kill the worst offenders one by one.

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