limit program to one instance

stevenhasty · 10-24-2003, 09:29 AM

I use evolution for mail. Sometimes, I forget it's already running and start it again, and it opens with the same profile, so it starts crashing. How can I limit evolution to only running one instance at a time (and possibly switching to that window if it's already running)? I'm not very good at shell scripting, so any help would be appreciated. If it doesn't require a shell script, that would be fine, too.

Looking_Lost · 10-24-2003, 01:37 PM

This should do it, note there's no #!/bin/bash on purpose

Change /usr/bin/evolution-1.4 for whatever the full path is to start evolution/version on your system,

Code:

if ! /sbin/pidof /usr/bin/evolution-1.4
then
   /usr/bin/evolution-1.4
fi

Just create and launcher on your desktop to run whatever file you saved the above in, or edit what currently starts evolution

Second thoughts only works if you start it as a desktop launcer (talking gnome here) and not properly if you alter the menu item, but it's a start

stevenhasty · 10-28-2003, 04:38 PM

Great, that worked. It's not perfect, but it will do for now. It still makes the gnome 'busy' cursor when I try to make a second instance with the launcher (which was making it crash before), but it seems not to crash now. Next, if possible, I want to find out how to make it switch to the evolution window if it's already running.