how do I extract the pid field from ps aux command

RajRed · 09-07-2005, 01:58 PM

I need to find the pid for the running program, so I did

"ps aux | grep program_name", it showed

root 12347 2.0 2.0 1588 244 pts/1 s+ Sep01 0.00 program_name
root 25317 0.0 0.0 1673 628 pts/5 s+ 13:25 0:00 grep program_name

Q1:How do I use grep to exclude "grep program_name" itself and only get the first line?

Q2: How do I extract the pid (i.e. 12347) from the first line combining the comamnds "ps aux" and "grep" in one single command line ?

Thanks.

Tinkster · 09-07-2005, 03:02 PM

ps aux | awk '/name/ { print $2}'

[edit]
And to answer your actual question: :}

ps aux | grep name | grep -v grep
and
ps aux | grep name | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'
[/edit]

Cheers,
Tink

RajRed · 09-07-2005, 04:37 PM

great!. it worked.

Thank you.

Tinkster · 09-07-2005, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by RajRed
great!. it worked.

Thank you.

That's cool ...
Out of curiosity: which version did you end up using? :)

Cheers,
Tink

kreezxil · 12-09-2013, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinkster

ps aux | awk '/name/ { print $2}'

[edit]
And to answer your actual question: :}

ps aux | grep name | grep -v grep
and
ps aux | grep name | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'
[/edit]

Cheers,
Tink

It has been 8 years going on 9 years since the above quote was made and I want to say it is as relevant today as it was then, saved me lots of work in making my minecraft server script even more robust and spot on as possible.

Thanks!

druuna · 12-09-2013, 10:08 AM

There's no need for awk, grep or other extra commands and pipes. The ps command can do this without any help:

Code:

ps -C program_name -o pid

unSpawn · 12-09-2013, 12:35 PM

...or shorter:

Code:

pgrep program_name

Madhu Desai · 12-09-2013, 12:43 PM

..also

Code:

pidof program_name