> As I described earlier, if I had to enter: > > # pidof mysqld > > say, and this cli returned null, there is something that I can do to > pipe the actual return to stdout, even if it's default is to return > null to monitor (stdout). I think this is where most are confused with your question. What do you mean to pipe the "actual return" to stdout? A blank line is piped to stdout (echo "line 1";pidof mysqld;echo "line 2" will yield line 1, blank line, then line 2 which will really be line 3 of the output) hence where the confusion lies as to what you mean by the "actual return". Maybe if you described the bigger picture of what you are trying to do (vs just that one single line) it would be easier for us to determine what may help you accomplish that.