Scripting question

[kenshi]

When writing a Bash script, how would I check to see if a program is running? I want to run fetchmail from ppp.linkup but not if it's already running. Since I run ppp with the auto option, I have to kill fetchmail in ppp.linkdown so my internet doesn't connect every hour. Molte grazie.

[andrzej]

This is surely not at all optimal since I'm not really sober right now, but seems to work

#!/bin/bash

ALLPIDS=`ps aux | grep fetchmail | awk '{print $2}'`

FIRSTPID=`echo $ALLPIDS | awk '{print $1}'`

if [ -d /proc/$FIRSTPID ]; then
 echo "the program is running";
fi

[redhead]

This is surely not at all optimal since I'm not really sober right now, but seems to work

#!/bin/bash

ALLPIDS=`ps aux | grep fetchmail | awk '{print $2}'`

FIRSTPID=`echo $ALLPIDS | awk '{print $1}'`

if [ -d /proc/$FIRSTPID ]; then
 *echo "the program is running";
fi

Since the FIRSTPID will return the name of the user, then I dont see why you would look in /proc/ for that..

And to catch the grep command which will show atleast half the time..

#!/bin/bash
PIDS=`ps aux | grep -v grep |grep fetchmail | grep $USER |awk '{print $2}'`
if [ x"$PIDS" = x ]; then
 echo "the program is not running"
else
 echo "Fetchmail is running"
fi

And if we are looking for just the right one... And want to be sure..

#!/bin/bash
PIDS=`ps aux | grep -v grep |grep fetchmail | grep $USER |awk '{print $2}'`
PIDR=`cat ~/.fetchmail.pid`
if [ "$PIDS" = "$PIDR" ]; then
 echo "Fetchmail is running"
fi

[andrzej]

Since the FIRSTPID will return the name of the user, then I dont see why you would look in /proc/ for that..

Wrong. ALLPIDS is a list of PIDs of all processes with 'fetchmail' in the output of 'ps aux' (first is fetchmail if running, second is grep). FIRSTPID is the first in that list.

It wasn't *that* bad.

[redhead]

ALLPIDS is a list of PIDs of all processes with 'fetchmail' in the output of 'ps aux' (first is fetchmail if running, second is grep). FIRSTPID is the first in that list.

It wasn't *that* bad.

Yeah, I noticed after my second read through.. Altho I would stay with the 'KIVS' (Keep It Very Safe) principle on this one.. ie:

#!/bin/sh
PID_R=`ps aux| grep -v grep| grep fetchmail| grep $USER| awk '{print $2}'`

if [ -f ~/.fetchmail.pid ]; then
 *PID_F=`cat ~/.fetchmail.pid`
 *if [ x"$PID_R" = x ]; then
 * echo "Fetchmail isn't running, and was last killed by SIGKILL"
 *else * 
 * *if [ "$PID_F" = "$PID_R" ]; then
 * * * *echo "Fetchmail is running as: $PID_R"
 * *else
 * * * echo "Something wierd happened, fetchmail is running, but not as the PID listed in its lockfile"
 * *fi
 *fi
else
 *if [ x"$PID_R" = x ]; then
 * echo "Fetchmail isn't running"
 *else
 * *echo "Something wierd happened, fetchmail is running, but with no lockfile"
 *fi
fi

(none of the code above has been tested, but it should work out of the box)

But true enough, given the fact that using a '| grep' on a 'ps aux' output seems to eliminate other users listings, your's is doing the job just fine.

[kenshi]

#!/bin/bash
PIDS=`ps aux | grep -v grep |grep fetchmail | grep $USER |awk '{print $2}'`
if [ x"$PIDS" = x ]; then
 echo "the program is not running"
else
 echo "Fetchmail is running"
fi

Since the BSD proc system is different and I'm trying to keep this simple, I'm going to go with this script. I have a small question though pertaining to this line.

if [ x"$PIDS" = x ];

What is the x for on both sides of the equal sign? I've never seen it used like that before. Thanks.

[pam]

Since the BSD proc system is different and I'm trying to keep this simple, I'm going to go with this script. I have a small question though pertaining to this line.

if [ x"$PIDS" = x ];

What is the x for on both sides of the equal sign? I've never seen it used like that before. Thanks.

That's because you are checking for a null value (ie if the thing expands to [ = ], bash won't like it. It doesn't have to be x, but it seems to be the convention. This technique is often used when there is a possibility that a shell variable will expand to null.

[kenshi]

Also, I have one more question. I tried putting "killall fetchmail" in my ppp.linkdown file, but it doesn't kill it when I get disconnected. I think I've had a similar problem before where I couldn't use killall in a script. So tell me if I'm correct with this, and correct me if I'm not. My pid file is /var/run/fetchmail.pid by the way. It contains the pid, a space, and the number of seconds it waits before checking mail. (Don't you love how Linux and FreeBSD put things in such different places?)

PID=`cat /var/run/fetchmail.pid | awk '{print $1}'`
kill $PID

Thanks a lot for everything so far.

[kenshi]

Disregard that last problem. It seems I don't have ppp.linkdown configured correctly or something. I don't think I have any more scripting questions for now.

[Feztaa]

When writing a Bash script, how would I check to see if a program is running?

You could use pidof, seems a bit simpler than what you have.

if [ ! pidof fetchmail ]
then
fetchmail
fi