Re: When does a background process complete?

[V. Mark Lehky]

Paul Jarc wrote:
> "V. Mark Lehky" <mlehky@cadence.com> wrote:
> > I have written a recursive function (one that calls itself).  In an attempt
> > to speed it up, I have made the call to itself in the background, using the
> > "&" symbol.
> 
> What makes you think this will speed it up?

One call to the function went from 2 minutes to 30 seconds...

> > How can I detect, from my script, when all the processes from this
> > function have completed?
> 
> You can't, unless you can determine it by looking at some external
> state, like some modification to the filesystem.  It would be easier
> to let the function run in the foreground.

damn!  I think I am going to have to do it through some lock file type of a
thing.

Thanx, Mark.