Check number of running scripts using ps

Question

I\'m writing a script (show_volume.sh) which may be called several times in short intervals. I need a way to determine whether there is more than just one running instance o

Answer 1

At the moment ps runs a process grep show_volume.sh is also running, so you always count the grep!

Simple solution, grep s[h]ow_volume.sh. The grep (not shell) will collapse the [h] to h and search for what you want, but your grep won't match itself because it will have [] in the parameter.

pgrep is also useful for this task and is smart enough to always exclude itself.