[PLUG] Probing init scripts...

[Kyle Accardi]

Michael C. Robinson wrote:
> # Check if $pid (could be plural) are running
> checkpid() {
>         while [ "$1" ]; do
>            [ -d /proc/$1 ] && return 0
>            shift
>         done
>         return 1
> }
> 
> 
> What is shift doing here?  

Since this is presumably a bash script, $1 is the list of arguments supplied 
to the script from the command line (it's hardcoded into bash).  'shift' 
steps through them using <space> as a seperator (although this can be 
changed through the environmental var $IFS which stands for Internal Field 
Seperator).

So if you call your script thusly,

$ my_script foo bar baz

the while loop above will be entered three times, and $1 will hold the 
values foo, bar, baz in that order.

I'd answer the rest, but my dog insists on playing right now...

--
Kyle Accardi