Bash Script - How do I make sure my program is still running?
 

Hello,
I have minimal(almost no) experience with linux and have ssh to a server with minimal access.
My objective is to keep a program running. If the server shuts down then it will stop. I want to make sure it stays live. I would appreciate any help with this.

Just a note: I don't really know anything about cron jobs, just that they exist. Would this be a solution?

Thanks,
Mike

I think I remember to have used 'nohup <command> &'. This should run the command independent from the existence of the console you used to start it.

How do I stop a command like that?

You need to know the process ID (e.g. ps ax | grep <command>). Then you can send the stop signal with e.g. 'kill -19 <pid>'. -19 is equivalent to SIGSTOP, but there are many others (see 'kill -l'). I don't know which is to prefer.

An even easier way to get the process ID (PID) of your program is to do Then you can kill it if you want. Also, nohup [command] & just directs all output to nohup.out (the nohup part) and makes it run in the background (the &). To bring the program back from the background, you can type and to see which programs you started with &, type jobs. Whew. Little process control tutorial there.