There are several ways to do this, but I'm not sure which one of them is the best.

Here's what I can think of:

  • Look for the process using pgrep.
  • Have the script lock itself using flock, and then check if it is locked each time it runs.
  • Create a pid file in /var/run/program_name.pid and check for existence, and compare pids if needed.

There are probably more ways to do this. What do you think is the best approach?

perl process mutual-exclusion
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