There are many ways to do this but if you go with a scraping ps method, you might want to try using the -o switch which will simplify your parse step. Check the man pages for the -o switch keywords. I just used split instead of a regex:

   @outrecs = `ps -efo pid,pcpu,fname`;
   @matches = grep /ns-httpd/, @outrecs;
   foreach (@matches) {
      $ct++;
      chomp;
      ($process, $pcpu, $pname) = split(" ");
      $sttotal = $sttotal + $pcpu;
   }
[download]

This is a snippet of real code in which I did use strict (omitted in the example though). I also had a related thread a while back with useful info. HTH.

--Jim

Update: You can also use:

   @matches = `ps -efo pid,pcpu,fname|grep httpd`;
[download]

to eliminate the need for the Perl grep. Just realized that after I posted. Learn something all the time. :)