Passing variable into a function that uses awk - function

Question

I have a script that attempts to stop a certain process by name (but I need to specify a certain string that can't be killed, namely "notThisProcess"), then kills it after 20 seconds if it hasn't come down gracefully, ie:
#!/bin/ksh
bname=BTEST
bserver=BSERVER
PROCESS_ID=`ps auxww | awk '/PROCESS_NAME_ALPHA/ && !/awk/ && !/notThisProcess/ {print $2}'`
/apps/customapp/stopcommand -a $bname -processName PROCESS_NAME_ALPHA -serverName $bserver
sleep 20
kill -4 $PROCESS_ID
PROCESS_ID2=`ps auxww | awk '/PROCESS_NAME_BETA/ && !/awk/ && !/notThisProcess/ {print $2}'`
/apps/customapp/stopcommand -a $bname -processName PROCESS_NAME_BETA -serverName $bserver
sleep 20
kill -4 $PROCESS_ID2
#etc..
As my list of processes just increased I'm trying to put those steps into a function but I can't figure out how to pass the process name to awk. ie, this doesn't work:
#!/bin/ksh
bname=BTEST
bserver=BSERVER
cycleProcess()
{
PROCESS_ID=`ps auxww | awk '/$1/ && !/awk/ && !/notThisProcess/ {print $2}'`
/apps/customapp/stopcommand -a $bname -processName PROCESS_NAME_ALPHA -serverName $bserver
sleep 20
kill -4 $PROCESS_ID
}
cycleProcess PROCESS_NAME_ALPHA
cycleProcess PROCESS_NAME_BETA
exit
I've seen several references to assignment via -v but despite several attempts I haven't been successful. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I'd write it like this:
#!/bin/ksh
bname=BTEST
bserver=BSERVER
cycleProcess() {
typeset procname="$1"
typeset pid=$(ps auxww | awk -v name="$procname" '$0 ~ name && !/awk/ && !/notThisProcess/ {print $2}')
if [[ -z "$pid" ]]; then
echo "$procname is not running"
return
fi
/apps/customapp/stopcommand -a "$bname" -processName "$procname" -serverName "$bserver"
sleep 20
kill -4 "$pid"
}
processes=(
PROCESS_NAME_ALPHA
PROCESS_NAME_BETA
)
for proc in "${processes[#]}"; do
cycleProcess "$proc"
done
typeset in a function is a way to declare a variable as local to that function.
I don't have access to an AIX box. ps auxww output on my Linux box shows the command name in field 11, so instead of /name/ && !/awk/ && !/thisScript/ you might be able to use $11 == name {print $2},
or $11 ~ name if the match is not exact.

Answer 2

you can pass them in a pipe char delimited list and compare with the last field.
ps ... | awk -v keep="process1|process2|process3" '$NF!~keep{print $2}'
also note that in your script awk '/$1/ && ... the variable is not the bash variable but the first field passed to awk script.

Answer 3

As others already noted, shell variables may be passed to awk scripts using the option -v. This must be used if the awk script resides in a seperate file (by using the option -f).
When specifying the awk script directly within the shell script between single quotes ('...'), You may also use the construct ' " $shell_variable " '. Note that when doing so, there must be no spaces between the single and double quotes!
Example:
process_string="plugin-container"
pids=$( ps -fu $LOGNAME | awk '/'"$process_string"'/ { print $2 }' )