On 02Nov2006 08:45, Paul Ward <pnward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: | # ps -fe| awk '{print $8}' | egrep "test1" -e "test2" |echo $? Maybe this: out=`ps -fe| awk '{print $8}' | egrep "test1" | egrep "test2"` [ -n "$out" ] If any lines get through both greps, $out will not be empty. This we test for. Note that this doesn't scale very well to lots of tests. You'll have to do something more sophisticated for lots of tests. Cheers, -- Cameron Simpson <cs@xxxxxxxxxx> DoD#743 http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/ Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen. - Lord Halifax, Works