line space in an empty variable

[lhg1]

Hi

I want to monitor the number of processes the easyest way is

ps -ef|grep <process>|grep -v grep|wc -l

But error handling would be a lot easyere if I knew the processes that where capturede - ex.

a=`ps -ef|grep <process>|grep -v grep`
number=`echo $a|wc -l`

The last one enables me to view the processes that where captures.

The problem is that last method acturly has an empty line if no processes is captures.

ex

>ps -ex|grep ThereWillNeverBeAnythingCaptured|grep -v grep|wc -l
>0

>a=`ps -ex|grep ThereWillNeverBeAnythingCaptured|grep -v grep`
>number=`echo $a|wc -l`
>echo $number
>1

I've tryede putting |awk NF but no result.

Any ideers?

Thanks
Lhg

 

[PHV]

Replace this:
number=`echo $a|wc -l`
with this:
[ "$a" ] && number=`echo $a|wc -l` || number=0

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[Annihilannic]

Or:

number=`echo $a | grep -c .`

Annihilannic.