Linux/Unix command to determine if process is running?

Question

I need a platform independent (Linux/Unix|OSX) shell/bash command that will determine if a specific process is running. e.g. mysqld, httpd... What

Answer 1

The following shell function, being only based on POSIX standard commands and options should work on most (if not any) Unix and linux system. :

isPidRunning() {
  cmd=`
    PATH=\`getconf PATH\` export PATH
    ps -e -o pid= -o comm= |
      awk '$2 ~ "^.*/'"$1"'$" || $2 ~ "^'"$1"'$" {print $1,$2}'
  `
  [ -n "$cmd" ] &&
    printf "%s is running\n%s\n\n" "$1" "$cmd" ||
    printf "%s is not running\n\n" $1
  [ -n "$cmd" ]
}

---

$ isPidRunning httpd
httpd is running
586 /usr/apache/bin/httpd
588 /usr/apache/bin/httpd

$ isPidRunning ksh
ksh is running
5230 ksh

$ isPidRunning bash
bash is not running

Note that it will choke when passed the dubious "0]" command name and will also fail to identify processes having an embedded space in their names.

Note too that the most upvoted and accepted solution demands non portable ps options and gratuitously uses a shell that is, despite its popularity, not guaranteed to be present on every Unix/Linux machine (bash)