why isn't this line working for me, bash help

[horent135]

The purpose of this is, if Hw1 is open then echo an message, otherwise open hw2.
My code is

If [ps -ef | grep hw1]
then true
echo "hw1 is open"
else
cat hw2
fi

[valan]

Try it without the brackets

http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/testconstructs.html

[raghaven.kumar]

because when you give a grep command it is run as a process.
so your grep hw1 is also shown in the output.

Try somethin like
ps -ef | grep hw1 | grep -v grep
means that output statements that dont have grep.

[ghostdog74]

because when you give a grep command it is run as a process.
so your grep hw1 is also shown in the output.

Try somethin like
ps -ef | grep hw1 | grep -v grep
means that output statements that dont have grep.

one less grep process

ps -ef|awk '/bash/&&!/awk/'

or

if [ ! -z $(pidof program) ]

[Kieren]

You need to use some quotes:

If [ `ps -ef | grep hw1` ]

The quotes are found using shift and the key above tab