I have a script that runs every 15 minutes but sometimes if the box is busy it hangs and the next process will start before the first one is finished creating a snowball effect.
Why don't set a lock file ?
Something like
yourapp.lock
Just remove it when you process is finished, and check for it before to launch it.
It could be done using
if [ -f yourapp.lock ]; then
echo "The process is already launched, please wait..."
fi
In lieu of pidfiles, as long as your script has a uniquely identifiable name you can do something like this:
#!/bin/bash
COMMAND=$0
# exit if I am already running
RUNNING=`ps --no-headers -C${COMMAND} | wc -l`
if [ ${RUNNING} -gt 1 ]; then
echo "Previous ${COMMAND} is still running."
exit 1
fi
... rest of script ...
Use this script:
FILE="/tmp/my_file"
if [ -f "$FILE" ]; then
echo "Still running"
exit
fi
trap EXIT "rm -f $FILE"
touch $FILE
...script here...
This script will create a file and remove it on exit.