When I call $count=`xyz abcd` in a perl program, it should return "1". But it returns "2".

Why should it return "1"? How do you know that's what the shell script is printing? How do you know the shell script isn't printing "2"? For instance, how do you know the shell script isn't counting itself as a running instance of the program, since it has the program's name on its command line?

If I were dealing with this issue, I'd forget about the shell script and just solve the problem in Perl directly... 

   open PS, "ps -A |";
   # Note: not all versions of ps use the same args;
   #     -A works on Linux systems, but you may need
   #     -x on some systems, e.g., Darwin.
   my @instance = grep { /abcd/ } <PS>;
   print "Running Instances:\n";
   print join "\n", map { "\t$_" } @instances;
   print "\n";

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"In adjectives, with the addition of inflectional endings, a changeable long vowel (Qamets or Tsere) in an open, propretonic syllable will reduce to Vocal Shewa. This type of change occurs when the open, pretonic syllable of the masculine singular adjective becomes propretonic with the addition of inflectional endings."  — Pratico & Van Pelt, BBHG, p68

In reply to sounds like the shell script is buggy by jonadab
in thread Reaped: by NodeReaper

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