Wait for all processes with a certain name to finish (in bash)
I would like to wait in linux (Ubuntu 11.10) for a load of processes to finish. Each of these processes has a different pid but the same name. Is it possible to do this? EDIT: Perhaps I should specify that I don't necessarily know what the pid are, just the process name. EDIT: Thanks for the answers; Kevin's seems to do what I want. However, it doesn't work in the specific application I have, so I've posted a more detailed follow-up question here . wait $(pgrep programName) Ought to do it. wait $(pidof processname) perhaps. As long as you have the pid of these processes: wait $pid_of_process