Function that searchs a process by its name and shows in the terminal. * Shows the Header for reference * Hides the process 'grep' from the list * Case sensitive Show Sample Output

Note that `grep "$(ir foo)"` really doesn't save any typing, but wrapping this inside a second shell function will: psg() { grep "$(ir \"$@\")" ;} Show Sample Output

The '[r]' is to avoid grep from grepping itself. (interchange 'r' by the appropriate letter) Here is an example that I use a lot (as root or halt will not work): while (ps -ef | grep [w]get); do sleep 10; done; sleep 60; halt I add the 'sleep 60' command just in case something went wrong; so that I have time to cancel. Very useful if you are going to bed while downloading something and do not want your computer running all night.

You'll need to install proctools. MacPorts and Fink have this if you're running Mac OS X, check your Linux distribution's repositories if it isn't installed by default. Show Sample Output

hb(){ sed "s/\($*\)/`tput setaf 2;tput setab 0;tput blink`\1`tput sgr0`/gI"; } hb blinks, hc does a reverse color with background.. both very nice. hc(){ sed "s/\($*\)/`tput setaf 0;tput setab 6`\1`tput sgr0`/gI"; } Run this: command ps -Hacl -F S -A f | hc ".*$PPID.*" | hb ".*$$.*" Your welcome ;) From my bash profile - http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html Show Sample Output

Function that searchs for process by its name: * Shows the Header for reference * Hides the process 'grep' from the list * Case sensitive The typical problem with using "ps | grep" is that the grep process shows up the in the output. The usual solution is to search for "[p]attern" instead of "pattern". This function turns the parameter into just such a [p]attern. ${1:0:1} is the first character of $1 . ${1:1} is characters 2-end of $1 Show Sample Output

Grep for a named process. Show Sample Output

David thanks for that grep inside! here is mine version: psgrep() { case ${1} in ( -E | -e ) local EXTENDED_REGEXP=1 shift 1 ;; *) local EXTENDED_REGEXP=0 ;; esac if [[ -z ${*} ]] then echo "psgrep - grep for process(es) by keyword" >&2 echo "Usage: psgrep [-E|-e] ... " >&2 echo "" >&2 echo "option [-E|-e] enables full extended regexp support" >&2 echo "without [-E|-e] plain strings are looked for" >&2 return 1 fi \ps -eo 'user,pid,pcpu,command' w | head -n1 local ARG='' if (( ${EXTENDED_REGEXP} == 0 )) then while (( ${#} > 0 )) do ARG="${1}" shift 1 local STRING=${ARG} local LENGTH=$(expr length ${STRING}) local FIRSCHAR=$(echo $(expr substr ${STRING} 1 1)) local REST=$(echo $(expr substr ${STRING} 2 ${LENGTH})) \ps -eo 'user,pid,pcpu,command' w | grep "[${FIRSCHAR}]${REST}" done else \ps -eo 'user,pid,pcpu,command' w | grep -iE "(${*})" fi }