diff --git a/scripts/dist/cmd.sh b/scripts/dist/cmd.sh
index 9d2291475..6dd5f8c72 100755
--- a/scripts/dist/cmd.sh
+++ b/scripts/dist/cmd.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
+# clean up child processes via trap
+trap 'ps -p $$ -o pgid= | xargs pgrep -A -g | xargs kill ;exit' EXIT
+
 # regular expressions
 re='^[0-9]+$'