SYNOPSIS use Proc::Find qw(find_proc proc_exists); # list all of a user's processes my $procs = find_proc(user=>'ujang', detail=>1); # check if a program is running die "Sorry, xscreensaver is not running" unless proc_exists(name=>'xscreensaver'). DESCRIPTION This module provides a simple routine, proc_exists(), to check a process' existence by name, something that is commonly done in shell scripts using: ps ax | grep name pgrep name and also some routines, find_*(), to list processes matching some criteria. VARIABLES $Proc::Find::CACHE => bool (default: 0) If set to true, will cache the call to Proc::ProcessTable's table() so subsequent invocation to find_proc() or proc_exists doesn't have to call the method again. But this also means that the process check/listing will be done on a past/stale process table. FUNCTIONS find_proc(%args) => \@pids (or \@procs) Find process by name, PID, or some other attributes. Return an arrayref of PID's, or an empty arrayref if none match the criteria. Currently use Proc::ProcessTable to list the processes. Arguments: * pid => int Find by PID. Note that if you only want to check whether a PID exists, there are cheaper methods (see "SEE ALSO"). * name => str|regex Match against process' "name". Name is taken from the first word of the cmndline, with path stripped. If value is regex, will do a regex match instead of exact string comparison. Example: find_proc(name => "bash") find_proc(name => qr/^(Thunar|dolphin|konqueror)$/) * cmndline => str|regex Match against full cmndline. If value is regex, will do a regex match instead of exact string comparison. * exec => str Match against program (executable/binary)'s path. If value does not contain a path separator character, will be matched against program's name. Example: find_proc(exec => "perl") # find any perl find_proc(exec => "/usr/bin/perl") # find only a specific perl * user => int|str List processes owned by specified user/UID. If given a username which does not exist, will simply not match. * uid => int|str Same as user. * euser => int|str List processes running as certain effective user/UID (will look against euid). If given a username which does not exist, will simply not match. * euid => int|str Same as euser. * inverse => bool If set to true, then will return all processes not matching the criteria. * table => obj Supply result from Proc::ProcessTable object's table(). This can be used to reuse the table() cached result instead of repeatedly call table() on every invocation. See also $Proc::Find::CACHE. * detail => bool (default: 0) Instead of returning just the PID for each result, return a hash (record) of process information instead. Currently this is just the entry from Proc::ProcTable object's table() result. proc_exists(%args) => bool Shortcut for: @{ find_proc(%args) } > 0 find_all_proc(\%args, \%args2, ...) => \@pids (or \@procs) Given multiple criteria, perform an AND search. Will only call Proc::ProcessTable's table() method once. # find all processes matching mutiple criteria (although the same thing can # also be accomplished by find_proc() and combining the criteria) find_all_proc([{name=>'mplayer'}, {cmndline=>qr/mp3/}]); find_any_proc(\%args, \%args2, ...) => \@pids (or \@procs) Given multiple criteria, perform an OR search. Will only call Proc::ProcessTable's table() method once. # find all processes belonging to either user find_any_proc([{user=>'ujang'}, {user=>'titin'}]); SEE ALSO Proc::Exists can be used to check if one or more PIDs exist. If you are only concerned with POSIX systems, you can just do kill 0, $pid to accomplish the same. pgrep Unix command.