How to check if another instance of my shell script is running

Solution 1:

An easier way to check for a process already executing is the pidof command.

if pidof -x "abc.sh" >/dev/null; then
    echo "Process already running"
fi

Alternatively, have your script create a PID file when it executes. It's then a simple exercise of checking for the presence of the PID file to determine if the process is already running.

#!/bin/bash
# abc.sh

mypidfile=/var/run/abc.sh.pid

# Could add check for existence of mypidfile here if interlock is
# needed in the shell script itself.

# Ensure PID file is removed on program exit.
trap "rm -f -- '$mypidfile'" EXIT

# Create a file with current PID to indicate that process is running.
echo $$ > "$mypidfile"

...

Update: The question has now changed to check from the script itself. In this case, we would expect to always see at least one abc.sh running. If there is more than one abc.sh, then we know that process is still running. I'd still suggest use of the pidof command which would return 2 PIDs if the process was already running. You could use grep to filter out the current PID, loop in the shell or even revert to just counting PIDs with wc to detect multiple processes.

Here's an example:

#!/bin/bash

for pid in $(pidof -x abc.sh); do
    if [ $pid != $$ ]; then
        echo "[$(date)] : abc.sh : Process is already running with PID $pid"
        exit 1
    fi
done

Solution 2:

I you want the "pidof" method, here is the trick:

    if pidof -o %PPID -x "abc.sh">/dev/null; then
        echo "Process already running"
    fi

Where the -o %PPID parameter tells to omit the pid of the calling shell or shell script. More info in the pidof man page.

Solution 3:

Here's one trick you'll see in various places:

status=`ps -efww | grep -w "[a]bc.sh" | awk -vpid=$$ '$2 != pid { print $2 }'`
if [ ! -z "$status" ]; then
    echo "[`date`] : abc.sh : Process is already running"
    exit 1;
fi

The brackets around the [a] (or pick a different letter) prevent grep from finding itself. This makes the grep -v grep bit unnecessary. I also removed the grep -v $$ and fixed the awk part to accomplish the same thing.

Solution 4:

Someone please shoot me down if I'm wrong here

I understand that the mkdir operation is atomic, so you could create a lock directory

#!/bin/sh
lockdir=/tmp/AXgqg0lsoeykp9L9NZjIuaqvu7ANILL4foeqzpJcTs3YkwtiJ0
mkdir $lockdir  || {
    echo "lock directory exists. exiting"
    exit 1
}
# take pains to remove lock directory when script terminates
trap "rmdir $lockdir" EXIT INT KILL TERM

# rest of script here