code: use Bash to control workflow of processes

On Stack Overflow, someone asked how to control a workflow of processes.  The issue is that sometimes the procs will jam up, and should be restarted.  The following code does this.

One technique to control an errant pipeline is to count the number of pipeline processes after a while. If they haven't finished, then zap them and restart.

In this example code we use ask Bash for its process id (the $$ variable), then use pgrep to find all sub-processes of the script. That is, pgrep tells us all the workflow process IDs. If there are any, then we use the corresponding pkill command to squash them before a restart.

In addition, we use the date command to output a pretty log file, showing what the system is doing at what time.

full post on SO: How to send SIGKILLs to entire pipeline?

source: https://github.com/shavenwarthog/johntellsall/tree/master/karma/kill-pipeline