Waiting for a process to die

[Frank Shute]

On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 12:42:37PM -0700, Steven Schlansker wrote:
>
> Chris Rees wrote:
> >[ `ps ax |grep pid | wc -l ` = 1 ] && (echo "done!" | Mail -s "PROC
> >DONE" kelly.terry.jones at gmail.com)
> >  
> 
> Not always going to work.  For example,
> 
> [steven at scs:~]% ps ax | grep init
>    1 ?        Ss     0:39 init [2] 
> 13421 pts/1    R+     0:00 grep init

This is why you should use pgrep(1) to find a PID (and kill it) rather
than directly grepping a ps output like the previous poster did.

> 
> Also if you use its pid, 1, you get a whole bunch of uninteresting 
> processes as you're grepping for "1" ;)
> 
> [steven at scs:~]% ps ax | grep 1 | wc -l
> 94
> 

Wojcech nailed the approach the OP should be using.


Regards,

-- 

 Frank 


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