How to extract the PID from 'ps -ef'

nsinha · #1 (**permalink**) 11-20-2006

Hi

I am writing a shell script in ksh where I have to grep for a process name , say XYZ from "ps -ef" and then extract it's PID.

ps -ef | grep XYZ gives -
" int 7738 25734 1 02:00:49 pts/tc 0:00 grep XYZ"

I am thinking of replacing one or more occurrences of the space with pipe "|", so the output will be -
|int|7738|25734|1|02:00:49|pts/tc|0:00|grep|XYZ

Then I want to use the "cut -d"|" -f3 which will give 7738, the PID.

But I am not able to replace one or more occurrences of the space with a single pipe. I have tried in many many different ways, but I am in vain.

Can you please show me the way how it can be done ?

Thanking you in advance ...
Nirmalya

Yogesh Sawant · #2 (**permalink**) 11-20-2006

do this:

Code:

ps -ef | grep XYZ | awk '{ print $2 }'

replace XYZ withwhatever you have

nsinha · #3 (**permalink**) 11-20-2006

Hi Yogesh

Thanks a lot man. I should also try 'awk' - my mistake.

Thanks
Nirmalya

matrixmadhan · #4 (**permalink**) 11-20-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yogesh Sawant

do this:

Code:

ps -ef | grep XYZ | awk '{ print $2 }'

replace XYZ withwhatever you have

how about this,

Code:

ps -ef | awk ' /XYZ/ { print $2 }'

Yogesh Sawant · #5 (**permalink**) 11-20-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by matrixmadhan

how about this,

Code:

ps -ef | awk ' /XYZ/ { print $2 }'

better, that reduces one pipe

Deepa · #6 (**permalink**) 11-20-2006

tr command should help you to squeeze characters.
Try tr -s option.

matrixmadhan · #7 (**permalink**) 11-20-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deepa

tr command should help you to squeeze characters.
Try tr -s option.

Am not sure, how would suppressing characters and that too which are repeated would prove to be helpful? Could you please explain that

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