PIDOF linux command manual

PIDOF(8)           Linux System Administrator's Manual             PIDOF(8)



NAME
       pidof -- find the process ID of a running program.

SYNOPSIS
       pidof [-s] [-x] [-o omitpid] [-o omitpid..]  program [program..]

DESCRIPTION
       Pidof  finds  the process id's (pids) of the named programs. It prints
       those id's on the standard output. This program  is  on  some  systems
       used  in  run-level  change  scripts, especially when the system has a
       System-V like rc structure. In that case these scripts are located  in
       /etc/rc?.d,  where  ? is the runlevel. If the system has a start-stop-
       daemon (8) program that should be used instead.

OPTIONS
       -s     Single shot - this instructs the program  to  only  return  one
              pid.

       -x     Scripts  too  -  this causes the program to also return process
              id's of shells running the named scripts.

       -o     Tells pidof to omit processes with that process id. The special
              pid  %PPID  can be used to name the parent process of the pidof
              program, in other words the calling shell or shell script.

NOTES
       pidof is simply a (symbolic)  link  to  the  killall5  program,  which
       should also be located in /sbin.

       When  pidof  is  invoked with a full pathname to the program it should
       find the pid of, it is reasonably safe. Otherwise it is possible  that
       it  returns pids of running programs that happen to have the same name
       as the program you're after but are actually other programs.

SEE ALSO
       shutdown(8), init(8), halt(8), reboot(8)

AUTHOR
       Miquel van Smoorenburg, miquels@cistron.nl



                                 01 Sep 1998                         PIDOF(8)