use strict;
use Proc::ProcessTable;

sub is_running {
   my ($pattern) = @_;
   my $t = Proc::ProcessTable->new();

   foreach $proc ( @{ $t->table() } ) {
     $proc->cmndline() =~ /^$pattern/ and return 1;
   } 
   
   return 0;
}
[download]

stephen

Check this out.

# ps -aux | grep tail
root   19775  0.1  0.2  968  656 pts/3    S 17:07:27  0:00 grep tail
root    3030  0.0  0.2 1008  696 pts/4    S 10:23:21  0:00 tail -f /va
+r/adm/dd

# ps -aux | grep 't\ail'
root    3030  0.0  0.2 1008  696 pts/4    S 10:23:21  0:00 tail -f /va
+r/adm/dd
[download]

Update: I like petral's way.

First time I saw this I thought it was a typo. ;) Pick a character that doesn't have special meaning to grep when '\' is used before it.

or
# ps -aux | grep '(httpd|named)' | grep -v grep
or
#!/usr/bin/perl
@ps = qx(ps aux);
@httpd = grep {/httpd/} @ps;
@named = grep {/named/} @ps;
print "httpd's:\n\t", join("\n\t", @httpd),
 "\nnamed's:\n\t", join("\n\t", @named), "\n";
[download]

ps -aux|grep httpd|grep -v grep
[download]

$ ps -C httpd,named
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
  367 ?        00:00:08 httpd
 2134 ?        00:00:00 named
 2136 ?        00:00:01 named
 2137 ?        00:18:02 named
 2138 ?        00:00:02 named
 2139 ?        00:02:07 named
 9767 ?        00:00:00 httpd
 9768 ?        00:00:00 httpd
 9769 ?        00:00:00 httpd
 9770 ?        00:00:00 httpd
 9771 ?        00:00:00 httpd
 9772 ?        00:00:00 httpd
 9773 ?        00:00:00 httpd
 9774 ?        00:00:00 httpd
 9775 ?        00:00:00 httpd
 9776 ?        00:00:00 httpd
$ 

There are also ps switches to select output fields and not print a heading.

After Compline,
Zaxo

Keep in mind that -C is Linux-only ps switch.

--
Ilya Martynov (http://martynov.org/)

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

sub is_running {
    my $process = shift;    # name of process
    my @p = grep { !/grep/ } `ps aux | grep $process`;
                # ps aux without the greps
    print @p;            # comment this out
    return scalar @p;        # false if @p is empty; true otherwise
}

# test program
foreach (qw(httpd sshd syslogd telnetd ftpd yourmama)) {
    printf("$_ %s running.\n", (is_running($_) ? "is" : "is not"));
}
[download]

w/ the experimental syntax-highlighted remix

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

sub is_running {
    my $process = shift;    # name of process
    my @p = grep { !/grep/ } `ps aux | grep $process`;
                            # ps aux without the greps
    print @p;               # comment this out
    return scalar @p;       # false if @p is empty; true otherwise
}

# test program
foreach (qw(httpd sshd syslogd telnetd ftpd yourmama)) {
    printf("$_ %s running.\n", (is_running($_) ? "is" : "is not"));
}

my @httpd = grep /httpd/, qx(ps aux);
# external grep(1) is not called, so it's not in the array.
[download]

++ vs lbh qrpbqrq guvf hfvat n ge va Crey :)
Nabgure bar vs lbh qvq fb jvgubhg ernqvat n znahny svefg.
-- vs lbh hfrq OFQ pnrfne ;)
    - Whreq

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use LWP::UserAgent;

my $debug = 0;
my $url = shift || die "Syntax is '$0 url-to-test': $!";

$debug && print "URL is $url\n";

my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
my $request = HTTP::Request->new('GET', "$url");
my $response = $ua->request($request);

if ($response->is_success) {
   exit 0;
} else {
   exit 1;
}
[download]