"eldorado" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>> g = os.popen("ps -ef | grep HUB | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $2 }'") > >>> h = g.readlines() > >>> g.close() > >>> h > ['87334\012'] > >>> h = h[:-1] > >>> h > [] Oh, sorry... h is a list here because you are using readlines(). I am used to doing this: fd = os.popen('ps -ef | grep python') s = fd.read() to get a single string. You can do something like s = h[0] and then operate on s, or you can use read() in place of readlines() to get h as a single string, or you can operate on the first element of h: >>> h = ['87334\012'] >>> h[0][:-1] '87334' >>> h[0].rstrip('\n') '87334' All the error handling to do in the case where you actually have multiple processes being matched is up to you. ;) -ej -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list