ok removing the ticks and adding double qoutes worked, but now i have another dilema i want to substitute my $PS variable with the following:

$PS=`/usr/ucb/ps -auwwwx | awk '/bpps/{ print $2 }'`;
[download]

When i run the program in the regular bash shell i get a list of PIDS which is the result i want. When i add that same statement to $P variable i get the following:

Checking
Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at bpps-2 li
+ne 8.
[download]