grep exact process name in bash script with variable argument

Question

I'm writing a bash script where I want to grep the name of a process. This name is the argument when the script is executed.

Normally I can do this ps -ef | grep [w]ord to get the correct processes. How can I have the same effect when the argument to grep (here [w]ord) is something like $1

example:

ps -ef | grep [f]fmpeg

will show lines like this and nothing else

jan 117977 117966 0 20:07 pts/0 00:00:01 ffmpeg ..

when I want the same behavior within a script and make the argument to grep the argument from the script:

ps -ef | grep "$1"

and call it with ./script.sh ffmpeg it will show me the ffmpeg processes (correct) but also the grep and bash process:

jan       117977  117966  0 20:07 pts/0    00:00:01 ffmpeg ..
jan       118566  117021  0 20:14 pts/4    00:00:00 bash ./script.sh ffmpeg
jan       118568  118566  0 20:14 pts/4    00:00:00 grep ffmpeg

I'm not interested in the last two lines of the output

Answer 1

Simply run:

pgrep -fl script.sh

From man pgrep:

pgrep, pkill, pidwait - look up, signal, or wait for processes based on name and other attributes
-f, --full
The pattern is normally only matched against the process name. When -f is set, the full command line is used.
-l, --list-name
List the process name as well as the process ID. (pgrep only.)

Answer 2

In shells that support it, you could use the substring expansion to put the brackets in the right places:

name=ffmpeg
ps -ef | grep "[${name:0:1}]${name:1}"

would run grep "[f]fmpeg" on the right hand side of the pipeline.

_{(That should be relatively safe with most special characters, since they're usually not special within brackets, but don't expect you'd have anything but letters there.)}

Though pgrep is better in that it knows to ignore itself automatically. It just doesn't print everything ps does, but something like this might help with that:

name=ffmpeg
ps -f -p $(pgrep "$name" |tr '\n' ',')

Answer 3

Would inverted-match with grep work?

grep -v 'grep\|script'

This will not match grep or script.