Automatically kill a function after unexpected end of calling script

[TSch]

Hi folks,

here we go again ...

I'm using something like this:

function dosomething
{
while :;
do
  ps -ef | something
  echo "Something more"
done
}

dosomething &
function_pid=$!

"some other actions"
..
..
..

kill $function_pid

So far so good. But whenever the main script ends unexpectedly or just by pressing <STRG>+<C> the dosomething function remains active and (in this case) continues to fill the screen with stupid echo outputs ... ;-)

Is there any way to automatically end the function in such a case ?

My first idea was do include something like this in the function itself:

active=$(ps -ef | grep Main_Script | grep -v grep | wc -l)
if [ $active -eq 0 ];
then
exit

But after pressing <STRG>+<C> the main script seems to end but a process containing the name of this main script remains active and therefore the functions is always going to find 1 line using the ps command ...

Any ideas how so solve this problem ?

Regards
Thomas

 

[Annihilannic]

Look into the trap facility which allows you to do some cleanup when the script has been interrupted by certain signals, one of which is interruption via Ctrl-C.

Annihilannic.