# PIDOF - find the process ID of a running program - man(8) - [phpMan]

[_PIDOF_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PIDOF/8/markdown)                         Linux System Administrator's Manual                        [_PIDOF_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PIDOF/8/markdown)

## NAME
       pidof - find the process ID of a running program

## SYNOPSIS
       **pidof  **[**-s**]  [**-c**] [**-n**] [**-x**] [**-z**] [**-o _**omitpid[,omitpid...]_]  [**-o _**omitpid[,omitpid...]..._]  [**-d**
       _sep_] _program_ [_program..._]

## DESCRIPTION
       **pidof **finds the process id's (PIDs) of the named programs. It prints those id's on the  stan‐
       dard  output.  This  program  is on some systems used in run-level change scripts, especially
       when the system has a _System-V_ like _rc_ structure. In that case these scripts are  located  in
       _/etc/rc?.d_,  where  ?  is the runlevel. If the system has a [**start-stop-daemon**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/start-stop-daemon/8/markdown) program that
       should be used instead.

## OPTIONS
### -s     

### -c     
              is ignored for non-root users, as they will be unable to check the current root direc‐
              tory of processes they do not own.

### -n     
              file systems like **NFS**.  Instead of using this option the variable **PIDOF_NETFS  **may  be
              set and exported.

### -q     
              false to indicate whether a matching PID was found.

### -x     
              the named scripts.

### -z     
              are skipped as trying to deal with them can cause pidof  or  related  tools  to  hang.
              Note:  In  the past pidof would ignore processes in the uninterruptable state (D), un‐
              less the **-z **flag was specified. This is no longer the case.  The  **pidof  **program  will
              find and report processes in the D state whether **-z **is specified or not.

       -d _sep_ Tells  _pidof_  to use _sep_ as an output separator if more than one PID is shown. The de‐
              fault separator is a space.

       -o _omitpid_
              Tells _pidof_ to omit processes with that process id. The special pid **%PPID **can be  used
              to  name  the parent process of the **pidof **program, in other words the calling shell or
              shell script.

## EXIT STATUS
       **0      **At least one program was found with the requested name.

       **1      **No program was found with the requested name.

## NOTES
       _pidof_ is actually the same program as [**killall5**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/killall5/8/markdown); the program behaves according to the  name
       under which it is called.

       When  **pidof  **is  invoked with a full pathname to the program it should find the pid of, it is
       reasonably safe. Otherwise it is possible that it returns PIDs of running programs that  hap‐
       pen  to  have the same name as the program you're after but are actually other programs. Note
       that the executable name of running processes is calculated  with  [**readlink**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/readlink/2/markdown),  so  symbolic
       links to executables will also match.

       Zombie  processes  or  processes in disk sleep (states Z and D, respectively) are ignored, as
       attempts to access the stats of these will sometimes fail.  The **-z  **flag  (see  above)  tells
       **pidof  **to  try to detect these sleeping and zombie processes, at the risk of failing or hang‐
       ing.


## SEE ALSO
       [**shutdown**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/shutdown/8/markdown), [**init**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/init/8/markdown), [**halt**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/halt/8/markdown), [**reboot**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/reboot/8/markdown), [**killall5**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/killall5/8/markdown)

## AUTHOR
       [Miquel van Smoorenburg](mailto:<miquels@cistron.nl>)

sysvinit                                     01 Sep 1998                                    [_PIDOF_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PIDOF/8/markdown)