Grep & process question

[mickle026]

Im using an open embeded distro and a device that used a very slimmed down linux so i need to check if a process is running on it and lots of examples wont work on the net because of the lack of tools in the distro

so I wrote a script

#!/bin/sh
my_string="telnetd"
echo "my script is running"
if [ `ps -ef | grep $my_string | grep -v grep` ]; then
{
    echo "$my_string is already running"
}
else 
{ 
  echo "$my_string is not running - restarting"
   cd /
  /bin/sh /usr/script/myscript.sh start
}
fi

The script runs fine, but I always receive the script is not running message so the test of the process is incorrect.

even if I put in a not test !:
if [ `! ps -ef | grep $my_string | grep -v grep` ]; then

Can anyone tell me what i am doing wrong?

[mickle026]

I think this is right

if [ ! $? ` ps -ef | grep $my_string | grep -v grep` -eq 0 ]; then

Can anyone confirm whether this would work for me?

Thanks in advance

#!/bin/sh
my_string="telnetd"
echo "my script is running"
if [ ! $? ` ps -ef | grep $my_string | grep -v grep` -eq 0 ]; then
{
    echo "$my_string is already running"
}
else 
{ 
  echo "$my_string is not running - restarting"
   cd /
  /bin/sh /usr/script/myscript.sh start
}
fi