killing processes thru' C programs

[Chris Torek]

In article <1991Apr24.144240.3322 at uoft02.utoledo.edu>
grx0736 at uoft02.utoledo.edu writes:
>does anyone know how to kill processes through C programs if only
>the name of the running process is known, and not its pid.

The `name' of a process *is* its pid.  The `command' text ps prints
is purely for your convenience in case you have forgotten what the
process named `12345' might be doing.

>The call  to this function could be something like
>
>	kill_process("process_name");
>
>I would not like to do this by using ps, or by executing a 
>shell script from within the C program. 

Consider something like:

	$ foo & foo &
	7179
	7180
	$ your_program

One process is named 7179, the other 7180.  Both of them were started
with the command `foo'.  Which one do you want to kill?

Now, if you start each process yourself, or if you are willing to run
`ps' or something equivalent, you can of course associate your own
arbitrary strings with each PID.  Since you control this, you can make
the mapping invertible and do whatever you like.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Lawrence Berkeley Lab CSE/EE (+1 415 486 5427)
Berkeley, CA		Domain:	torek at ee.lbl.gov