sub ProcessRunning {

#  If the passed string exists in the current Unix/Linux process list,
#  then this subroutine returns the lines from a "ps -e" command which
#  contain that string.   These lines will look something like
#  "26787 pts/1    00:00:00 TestLoop.pl".  If more than one running
#  process line contains that string, each of those lines will be
#  included in the returned value.  Since this is Perl, these
#  returned values can be treated as TRUE if desired.
#  Make sure to specify a string that will uniquely locate the
#  processes of interest. Alternatively, the returned value could then
#  be further examined for other analysis.
#
#  If the string does NOT exist, an empty value is returned, which
#  can be treated as FALSE.
#
#  Sample usages:
#     exit if &ProcessRunning($myProcess);
#  OR
#     &ProcessRunning($myProcess) and die 
#       "Another copy of process $myProcess is already running\n";
#  OR
#     $result = &ProcessRunning($myProcess);  # Examine $result for
                                              # further processing

  return 0 unless (`ps -e | grep @_ | grep -v grep`);

} # end sub ProcessRunning