Hi,
does anyone know how to write a script (prob using pgrep/pkill) to kill processes
that making more than 5 copies of ITSELF ??
Thanks

Hi

Test this

ps -ef | grep | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill

Thanks for replying.. looking at your command, i wonder where i can actually specify the condition "a process that is forking more than X copies of itself" ??
the idea from your command is that you want to send kill signal to ALL processes that
have more than 1 copy, rite ?
by the way, I've just tested this command,
it does not work. this is what i got :

ps -ef | grep | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill
Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file . . .
/usr/bin/kill[8]: kill: bad argument count

Hmm..wonder whats wrong with that ?
Again, thanks a lot for any reply