Archivelog Backup Script

Question

Hello
I have a backup script which is kicked off by cron every 2 hours. I am facing a problem of script geting overlapped .Like say if the script is running at 5 am and the next one is scheduled at 7 am...if 5 am script is still backing up archive logs past 7 am then 7 am script also starts and it finishes abruptly..i want to avoid this situation.
For this i modified my script so that it can check doing a "ps -ef|grep arch_bkup.sh|wc -l"...bt i dont wanto depend on this number everytime...Does anyone came across this situation and has a better solution..Please reply
Thanks

Answer 1

sure
just from a simple command line:
Returns my grep:
# ps -ef | grep backup_arch.sh
oracle 22449 2861 0 11:30:59 pts/3 0:00 grep backup_arch.sh
# echo $?
0
Returns nothing (used with -v to eliminate the grep that I run)
# ps -ef | grep backup_arch.sh | grep -v grep
# echo $?
1
Normally your output would produce at least 2 lines when the job was running...
Let me know if you need any more assistance with it.
Edited by: Jamie CC on Dec 10, 2009 8:37 AM
Should also mention that $? is the return code of the last command ran so in your script make sure you check it right after your grep...
Edited by: Jamie CC on Dec 10, 2009 8:38 AM