Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucselx!berick!optigfx!crash!ncr-sd!sagpd1!jharkins
From: jharkins@sagpd1.UUCP (Jim Harkins)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Funny kill -9 behaviour
Message-ID: <909@sagpd1.UUCP>
Date: 17 Aug 90 23:37:48 GMT
Organization: Scientific Atlanta-GPD, San Diego
Lines: 29

Due to inattention on my part I managed to create a bunch of processes I
needed to kill.  Rather than typing 'kill -9 number-list', I tried:

	kill -9 `ps -aug | grep ekg | awk '{print $2}'`

To which I was rewarded with

	`ps -aug | grep ekg | awk '{print $2}'`: ambiguous.

After playing around a bit I realized the problem lay with the kill -9,
by replacing it with echo I got a list of process numbers.  I redirected
the ps ... awk output into foo, then tried

	kill -9 `cat foo`

and got

	`cat foo`: ambiguous.

What I want to know is why in the hay does this happen?  FYI, I killed the
turkeys with a foreach i (`cat foo`) loop in which I kill -9'd the $i's.
Also, I'm on a Sun running 4.3 bsd.


-- 
jim		jharkins@sagpd1

Iraqnophobia!  The talk of the Middle East.  Coming soon to a theatre of war
near you.