Shell Programming and Scripting

There is no need to save the output as a file.
Have a look at:

Code:

PID=$(ps -l | grep -i "$1" | grep -v grep | awk '{print $4}')
if [ -n "$PID" ]
then	echo "Do you want to kill $1 ($PID)?"
	read -n1 buffer
	case $buffer in
	y|Y)	kill $PID	;;
	n|N)	echo "Ok, thanks for using the program"	;;
	esac
fi

Hope this helps

can you explain the following to me ?

grep -v grep
if [ -n
read -n1 buffer
case $buffer in

The -n checks if the following variable, in quotes, is Not-emtpy.

Since you grep a variable, you not only get the line you are looking for, but also the grep line itslf.
grep -v grep removes that unwanted line.

If you check for something 'hardcoded' this could be simplified as:

Code:

grep [v]ersion file.txt

This would print only a line with the word version, but not the grep cmd looking for it.

The read -n1 buffer, will read 1 char the user inputs, and then continue with the code.

Hth

excelent thanks . i really like the read -n1 buffer