[SOLVED] Issue saving a PID to a variable using ps ax and grep/awk

Reprovo · 11-26-2017, 09:27 AM

Hi.

If I run the following command:

Code:

 ps ax | grep [b]ash | awk '{print $1}';

I always get the expected answer but if i try to save to variable:

Code:

 myvar=$(ps ax | grep [b]ash | awk '{print $1}');

$myvar is giving strange output:

echo $myvar

2 170

2 174 177

Would appreciate any assistance as to why this is happening ?

David the H. · 11-26-2017, 10:13 AM

First of all, please use [code][/code] tags in your posts to preserve formatting.

Second, what exactly are you trying to do here? What is your ultimate goal?
(Check out the "asking the right question" link in my signature.)

grepping ps ax for "bash" is likely to give you multiple lines of output, depending on how many processes are running at the time. And storing the results from multiple lines in a single variable is probably not what you want. Use arrays for multiple values.

Third, you don't need grep here. awk can do it all.

Code:

ps ax | awk '/bash/ { print $1 }'

(And why are you using "[b]ash"? You don't need grouping brackets for single characters.)

Fourth, try using pgrep instead.

Fifth, proper quoting is very important in the shell. echo $myvar may not give you the output you expect. Especially if you have multiple values stored in it (see #2). Read: http://mywiki.wooledge.org/Quotes

Reprovo · 11-26-2017, 10:44 AM

Hi.

Thanks for taking a look.

1) have added code brackets

2) I'm just doing this for learning purposes. I'm running a bash shell in windows, there Is only 1 bash process running. If I just run the command:

Code:

 ps ax | grep [b]ash | awk '{print $1}';

output is always the same:

Code:

root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax | grep [b]ash | awk '{ print $1 }';
2
root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax | grep [b]ash | awk '{ print $1 }';
2
root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax | grep [b]ash | awk '{ print $1 }';
2
root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax | grep [b]ash | awk '{ print $1 }';
2
root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax | grep [b]ash | awk '{ print $1 }';
2

3)
Tried with:

Code:

 ps ax | awk  '/bash/ { print $1 }'

Code:

root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax | awk '/bash/ { print $1 }'
2
199
root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax | awk '/bash/ { print $1 }'
2
201
root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax | awk '/bash/ { print $1 }'
2
203

Checking the above, it appears when i save as variable, i'm saving the awk PID also.

Code:

root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax
  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
    1 ?        Ss     0:00 /init
    2 tty1     Ss     0:01 /bin/bash
  204 tty1     R      0:00 ps ax

i was using [b]ash so the grep process doesn't appear as it wont search for [b]ash , only wanted the single bash process

Code:

root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax | grep [b]ash ;
    2 tty1     Ss     0:01 /bin/bash
root@WLCYLTP02:~/learning/sed/mine# ps ax | grep bash ;
    2 tty1     Ss     0:01 /bin/bash
  224 tty1     S      0:00 grep --color=auto bash

4,5 - will check.

Reprovo · 11-26-2017, 11:40 AM

Ok.

I see what's going on based on what you mentioned earlier regarding the multiple bash processes. I thought only one is running but when i run the command substition, i'm creating another /bin/bash process.

Thanks for the help.