I'm trying to create a script that allows me to determine all the pid's that spawned from an original process(ie - who's running this command)....

I've created a script that searches the processes running based on an argument passed the script. It then is to get the parent pid and look that up....It should recursively look up each subsequent parent pid until it can't find any....

I need to be able to pass a variable, parent pid, into a ps -f -p command, but it keeps failing.....

Help!! Any ideas??

Here is the script......

#!/bin/ksh
touch running.out
pid_file=pid_file.lst
ppid_file=ppid_file.lst
while [ -f running.out ]
do
echo "checking for $1 session"
ps -ef|grep $1|grep -v root|cut -f5 -d" " > $pid_file

if [ -s $pid_file ];
then
echo "$1 session found"
while read item;
do
echo "Looking for parent pid - $item"
ps -f -p$item|cut -f5 -d" " > $ppid_file
echo "$ppid_file"
while [ -s $ppid_file ]
do
while read item;
do
ps -f -p$item|cut -f5 -d" " > $ppid_file
echo "$ppid_file"
done < $ppid_file
done
done < $pid_file
else
echo "$1 session is not on the system"
rm running.out
fi

done
rm $pid_file
rm $$ppid_file

---- the error I'm getting is: ps --p needs an argument

Your shell script is very involved with several loopings.
It would be time consuming to make it work.
Whithout going thru your logic, I can advise you in two things:
1) The problem you are having with the "ps --p needs an argument" is
because you are using a variable that is empty/null.
Try displaying (echo) all parameters before executing each command.
Example:
echo "item = <${item}>"
ps -f -p$item
There is a large probability that the variable "item" is empty/null at one point.
2) Your script still has an error -- missing a double quote ("):
echo $1 session found"

Thanks for the response Shell Life.....

The line above the ps -f -p$item|cut -f5 -d" " includes the $item variable which does have a value....Here is the output when the script is run.....

# ./tunnel_ppid.sh ora_mmon_olap

checking for ora_mmon_olap session
ora_mmon_olap session found
Looking for parent pid - 6008
ppid_file.lst
ps: option requires an argument -- p
usage: ps [-edaxzflP] [-u ulist] [-g glist] [-p plist] [-t tlist] [-R prmgroup] [-Z psetidlist]
ppid_file.lst

Thanks for the help everyone.....

I ended up figuring out the solution pending your assistance....Here is the updated code if anyone cares.....LOL

#!/bin/ksh
touch running.out
pid_file=pid_file.lst
while [ -f running.out ]
do
ps -ef|grep $1|grep -v root|cut -f5 -d" " > $pid_file
ps -ef|grep $1|grep -v root
if [ -s $pid_file ];
then
while read item;
do
xcmd=$(ps -f -p$item|grep $item|cut -c16-20)
echo $(ps -f -p$item|grep $item)
if [ -n $xcmd ];
then
touch looping.out
while [ -f looping.out ]
do
xcmd2=$(ps -f -p$xcmd|grep $xcmd|cut -c16-20)
echo $(ps -f -p$xcmd|grep $xcmd)
if [ -n $xcmd2 -a "${xcmd2}" != ' 0' ];
then
xcmd=$(ps -f -p$xcmd2|grep $xcmd2|cut -c16-20)
echo $(ps -f -p$xcmd2|grep $xcmd2)
else
echo "No additional Parent PID found"
rm looping.out
exit
fi
done
else
echo "No Parent PID found"
fi
done < $pid_file
else
echo "$1 session is not on the system"
rm running.out
fi
done


The output generated looks like this:

# ./tunnel_ppid.sh sqlplus
oracle 7171 3591 0 15:06:29 pts/ta 00:00 /U03/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/bin/sqlplus -s
oracle 7171 3591 0 15:06:29 pts/ta 0:00 /U03/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/bin/sqlplus -s
oracle 3591 5120 0 14:42:57 pts/ta 0:00 /bin/ksh ./refresh_tables.sh
oracle 5120 5069 0 16:24:00 pts/ta 0:00 -su
dc01928 5069 5068 0 16:23:20 pts/ta 0:00 -sh
root 5068 1261 0 16:23:19 pts/ta 0:00 telnetd
root 1261 1 0 16:12:59 ? 0:00 /usr/sbin/inetd -l
root 1 0 0 16:11:49 ? 0:06 init
root 0 0 0 16:11:49 ? 0:22 swapper
No additional Parent PID found

Which shows you the progression of who is ultimately running a process.....