Shell Programming and Scripting

i have this line of code on a korn shell script to detect the presence of script run:

Code:

ISRUNNING=`ps -eaf -o args | grep -i sfs_load_file.ksh | grep -v grep | wc -l`

sometimes this returns either 1, 2, or 3. when it returns 2 or 3 that tells us that there are more than 1 script of sfs_load_file.ksh runs at the same time. when in reality there is none. i suppose that when i run the sfs_load_file.ksh the variable $ISRUNNING should return only 1 that is because there are none other sfs_load_file.ksh is running.

please help and advise. the code might need some tweak or corrections.

thanks so much,
warren

You can also fuser the script file, which even detects peopel who source the script ('bash <script' or '. script').

Actually it should return 0 if there are 0 processes.
Try this one:

Code:

ps -eo args | grep -ic "sfs_load_file[.]ksh"

BTW one can supress the ps header:

Code:

ps -eo args= | grep -ic "sfs_load_file[.]ksh"

Case sensitivity is OK, so 'grep -c' not grep -ic'. The meta characters '[]' escaping the '.' keep it from being counted. LINUX users have 'pgrep -c sfs_load_file.ksh'

Still misses sourced runs, or someone running it through a link or sym-link. The fuser tactic is slower, but gets everyone on the inode. That just leaves people running it through a copy of a different name.

that works thanks so much

Even in pgrep it makes sense to escape the "wildcard dot":

Code:

pgrep -c "sfs_load_file[.]ksh"

The standard way is to use a PID file. When you run the script, save its PID in a file. That way you can check

Code:

if [ -s pidfile ] && ps `cat pidfile` >/dev/null
then
        echo running
else
        echo not running
fi

Much nicer than the ps | awk | sed | cut | kitchen | sink nonsense.