UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello

I need to retrieve the content of a file in the shell script file(.sh file).
I store the Process ID of the a process in file.Only the PID is available in that file.

Inside the shell script i want to retireve the content(PID) and need to check for the existence of the Process.Basically i use this mechanism to make sure a process is not started more than once in a machine.

Kindly let me know how to retrieve the content of a file inside shell script and assign that content to a variable.

kindly shed some light on it

Code:

PS(1)                   General Commands Manual                   PS(1)

NAME
     ps -- process status

SYNOPSIS
     ps [-acCehjlmrsSTuvwx] [-k key] [-M core] [-N system] [-O fmt] [-o fmt]
        [-p pid] [-t tty] [-U username] [-W swap]
     ps [-L]

Try the -p option.

Code:

pidVar=`cat pidFile`

Tried out the following

Code:

pidVar='cat pidFile'
echo $pidVar

Output i got is

Code:

cat pidFile

Kindly tell me way to get the content of the file by using the above command.

Badically file only contains PID.

Sorry to say ... it is my mistake ... i shud have used ` symbol.
Instead i have use single quotes(').

Thanks Madhan for the precise reply.