Bash scripting question

[kenshi]

I was trying to make a script for someone that will open a url in Mozilla. It should open Mozilla if it's not already, or open a new window if it is. I was going one step at a time, getting one part to work then going to the next. But so far, I can't even get the conditional statement to work. Here's the code so far.

if [ -z $(ps ux | grep mozilla) ]
then
    echo true
fi

It gripes about too many arguments. I have tried doing it different ways, but to no avail. If someone can help me figure out the if part, I'm confident I can fill in the then and else parts (and would like the challenge anyway).

[redhead]

Why not keep it simple:

#!/bin/sh

if [ `ps ux |grep -v grep | grep mozilla` ] then
  echo "Mozilla is dead"
else
   echo "Mozilla is running"
fi

[kenshi]

It's still giving me the error. I only changed the condition part, but obviously the rest is correct anyway. Let me reprint my code along with the error. I tried using sh as well like you have, but it also gave pretty much the same error so I changed it back to bash. Did you try this code out yourself by the way? FreeBSD uses Gnu Bash so it shouldn't be operating system differences.

if [ `ps ux | grep -v grep | grep mozilla` ]
then
    echo true
fi

bash-2.05b$ ./mozilla.sh 
./mozilla.sh: line 2: [: too many arguments

[kenshi]

Alright, I tried it exactly as you put it, just changing what's in the echo quotes. It gives this error instead.

bash-2.05b$ ./mozilla.sh 
./mozilla.sh: line 4: syntax error near unexpected token `else'
./mozilla.sh: line 4: `else'

[gorn]

#!/bin/bash
/opt/phoenix/phoenix -remote "openURL($@, new-tab)" ||
        exec /opt/phoenix/phoenix "$@";

but change phoenix to mozilla

whats happening is we just assume moz (or phoenix in my case) is running and connect and open a new window in it, if we fail to its not running so start it.

to avoid assuming its running:

if pidof mozilla-bin > /dev/null; then
  #its running so we can open a new window
else
  #start it
fi

the problem you had was if `ps ux | grep -v grep | grep mozilla` == "" then the syntax is wrong (if [ ]; then... )

[Hko]

Or, another possibility:

#!/bin/bash
if ps ux | fgrep mozilla | grep -v fgrep >/dev/null ; then
        # It's running
else
        # It's not running
fi

[kenshi]

[quote author=gorn link=board=9;threadid=5984;start=0#57073 date=1041495607]
the problem you had was if `ps ux | grep -v grep | grep mozilla` == "" then the syntax is wrong (if [ ]; then... )
[/quote]

Ah. I understand now. No wonder the script actually worked when Mozilla was open. I thought that was very strange. I'll try your quite simple script.