CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxbash
Sumit
Sumit

Reputation: 2023

Trying to fork a process in bash script

I am reading bash scripting and trying a simple fork scenario where script will fork a process and then the child will perform exec statement

Script is as below

#!/bin/bash
echo "I am parent process"
echo "my pid is $$"
pid=fork()
if [ $pid eq 0 ]; then
        echo "parent process resumed"
else
        echo "child process pid is $pid"
        exec ls -l
fi

It is not working. Does linux bash does not support fork like this?

Updated: Editing the output

I am parent process
my pid is 61978
new_child_process: line 4: syntax error near unexpected token `('
new_child_process: line 4: `pid=fork()'

Upvotes: 1

Views: 9108

Answers (1)

chicks
chicks

Reputation: 2463

fork is not directly available in bash, but it can be effectively simulated with &.

A couple of other things about this code:

  • To do a numeric comparison you should use -eq not eq (note the extra dash -).

  • It is also considered a best practice to use [[ ]] for tests instead of [ ].

Upvotes: 4

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