How to get subshell's PID in Korn Shell (equivalent of $BASHPID)

Question

In bash you have this handy variable: $BASHPID wich always returns the currently running subshell's PID. How can I get a subshell's PID in ksh? For example see the code below:

#!/usr/bin/ksh93

echo "PID at start: $$"

function run_in_background {
  echo "PID in run_in_background $$"
  run_something &
  echo "PID of backgrounded run_something: $!"
}

function run_something {
  echo "*** PID in run_something: $$"
  sleep 10;
}    

run_in_background
echo "PID of run in background $!"

This outputs the following:

PID at start: 5328
PID in run_in_background 5328
*** PID in run_something: 5328
PID of backgrounded run_something: 5329
PID of run in background 5329

What I want is the line starting with **** to output the subshell's PID, in the example's case that would be 5329.

Answer 1

I don't think that's available in ksh. There's a POSIX solution which involves running an external process:

sh -c 'echo $PPID'

On Linux, readlink /proc/self would also work, but I fail to see any advantage (it might be marginally faster; it could be useful on a BusyBox variant that has readlink but not $PPID, but I don't think there is one).

Note that in order to get the value in the shell, you need to be careful not to run that command in a short-lived sub-sub-shell. For example, p=$(sh -c 'echo $PPID') might show the output of the subshell that invokes sh within the command substitution (or it might not, some shells optimize that case). Instead, run

p=$(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID')

Answer 2

You can achieve what you want, but you need to put run_something into a separate script. I'm not exactly sure why, but $$ is not re-evaluated when it is used in a function in the same script that is calling it. I guess that the value of $$ is assigned once after the script is parsed and before it is executed.

run_in_background.sh

#
echo "PID at start: $$"

    function run_in_background {
      echo "PID in run_in_background $$"
      ./run_something.sh &
      echo "PID of backgrounded run_something: $!"
    }

    run_in_background
    echo "PID of run in background $!"

run_something.sh

#
echo "*** PID in run_something: $$"
sleep 10;

output

PID at start: 24395
PID in run_in_background 24395
PID of backgrounded run_something: 24396
PID of run in background 24396
*** PID in run_something: 24396

Answer 3

# KSH_VERSION hasn't always been a nameref, nor has it always existed.
# Replace with a better test if needed. e.g.:
# https://www.mirbsd.org/cvs.cgi/contrib/code/Snippets/getshver?rev=HEAD
if [[ ${!KSH_VERSION} == .sh.version ]]; then
    # if AT&T ksh
    if builtin pids 2>/dev/null; then # >= ksh93 v- alpha
        function BASHPID.get { .sh.value=$(pids -f '%(pid)d'); }
    elif [[ -r /proc/self/stat ]]; then # Linux / some BSDs / maybe others
        function BASHPID.get { read -r .sh.value _ </proc/self/stat; }
    else # Crappy fallback
        function BASHPID.get { .sh.value=$(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID'); }
    fi
elif [[ ! ${BASHPID+_} ]]; then
   echo 'BASHPID requires Bash, ksh93, or mksh >= R41' >&2
   exit 1
fi

Answer 4

Following the answer by @Gilles which I encountered whilst solving another problem that I had, I threw together a quick test program that underpins the theory that the correct answer is:

MYPID=$(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID')

I found there are times when exec isn't required but I confirmed that using it is the only way to get the correct pid all of the time in all of the shells I tried. Here is my test:

#!/bin/sh
pids() {
  echo ------
  pstree -pg $PPID
  echo 'PPID = ' $PPID
  echo '$$ = ' $$
  echo 'BASHPID =' $BASHPID
  echo -n 'sh -c echo $PPID = '; sh -c 'echo $PPID'
  echo -n '$(sh -c '\''echo $PPID'\'') = '; echo $(sh -c 'echo $PPID') 
  echo -n '$(exec sh -c '\''echo $PPID'\'') = '; echo $(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID') 
  echo -n 'p=$(sh -c '\''echo $PPID'\'') = '; p=$(sh -c 'echo $PPID') ; echo $p
  echo -n 'p=$(exec sh -c '\''echo $PPID'\'') = '; p=$(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID') ; echo $p
}
pids
pids | cat
echo -e "$(pids)"

and its output

------
bash(5975,5975)---pidtest(13474,13474)---pstree(13475,13474)
PPID =  5975
$$ =  13474
BASHPID = 13474
sh -c echo $PPID = 13474
$(sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13474
$(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13474
p=$(sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13474
p=$(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13474
------
bash(5975,5975)---pidtest(13474,13474)-+-cat(13482,13474)
                                       `-pidtest(13481,13474)---pstree(13483,13474)
PPID =  5975
$$ =  13474
BASHPID = 13481
sh -c echo $PPID = 13481
$(sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13481
$(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13481
p=$(sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13481
p=$(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13481
------
bash(5975,5975)---pidtest(13474,13474)---pidtest(13489,13474)---pstree(13490,13474)
PPID =  5975
$$ =  13474
BASHPID = 13489
sh -c echo $PPID = 13489
$(sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13492
$(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13489
p=$(sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13495
p=$(exec sh -c 'echo $PPID') = 13489

Substitute your favourite shell in the shebang: sh, bash, mksh, ksh, etc...

I don't understand why cases 2 and 3 give different results, nor why the results for case 3 differ between shells. I tried bash, ksh and mksh on Arch Linux FWIW.

Answer 5

#!/bin/ksh
 function os_python_pid {
/usr/bin/python  -c 'import os,sys ; sys.stdout.write(str(os.getppid()))'
}
function os_perl_pid {
/usr/bin/perl -e 'print getppid'
}

echo "I am $$"
    echo "I am $(os_python_pid) :: $(os_perl_pid)"
function proce {
  sleep 3
  echo "$1 :: $(os_python_pid) :: $(os_perl_pid)"
}

for x in aa bb cc; do
  proce $x &
  echo "Started: $!"
done