PID files

[burrito_bill]

I am running an executable file that needs to be monitored vi the program monit. The executable I am running does not create a PID file and monit uses PID files to stop and start services. Is there a way to force an executable to run with a PID file of my choice?

[jnojr]

No.

What you could do, though, is run your program with something like:

# foo && ps -C foo | cut -d" " -f 1 > /var/run/foo

[valan]

What do you mean by it uses a pid file to start and stop services? A pid file doesn't start or stop anything, it's just a file with a number in it. It is kept in /var/run and is called by the name of the executable, plus a .pid extension. All it contains is the process id of the executable, which is the same thing ps will tell you when it lists it. Generally, programs which use pid files create one when they start, remove it when they quit, this way if you try running it again it will see that there's already a copy running by seeing the pid file and won't start a second copy as long as the pid file is there. If the program doesn't create the nessecary pid file, then without hacking it into the code, it's quite trivial to write a wrapper script around the program to create a pid file when it starts, delete it when it exits, and check that no pid file exists before allowing it to start. Check out the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide for more info about the scripting stuff.