Forum Discussion
Identify a running script in Get-Process and script PID
A script isn't a process. It's uncompiled code that runs inside of an interpreter - a term you won't hear often in this era.
So, there is no concept of a process id for a script, as the process - and therefore the process id - is implicitly that of the interpreter running the script.
It's no different from earlier scripting iterations like those from the Windows Scripting Host (such as JavaScript and VBScript), where in that case, the process id would have been that of the Windows Scripting Host (be that WScript.exe or CScript.exe).
Is there a particular challenge you're trying to solve or are you just curious about the topic?
Cheers,
Lain
1) You can use Get-Process | Where-Object ProcessName -eq 'Example' . Alternatively, you can use Get-Process | Where-Object ProcessName -Match 'Example'' to match everything containing Example.
2) Correct, that shows the PID of the PowerShell process. This will give you the process name and the PID
Get-Process | Where-Object ProcessName -eq 'Example' | Select-object Id, ProcessName
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Assuming this is on Windows, there's a more efficient way to fetch the current process:
$CurrentProcess = [System.Diagnostics.Process]::GetCurrentProcess();Where you can then use the variable any way you see fit.
It is safe to print process information - be that $pid or anything else - from within the script.
Cheers,
Lain
First of all, thank you.
Yes, all the tests are performed in Windows 11 and PowerShell 7.4.
I tried the suggested solutions from the answers and they all print the process ID of the parent PowerShell instance where the script is launched.
Also, I tried to run this script: C:\script\example_script.ps1$currentProcess = [System.Diagnostics.Process]::GetCurrentProcess(); Write-Host "Hello from process $($currentProcess.Id); name: $($currentProcess.Name)" $currentProcess.CommandLine $currentProcess.CPU $currentProcess.MachineName $currentProcess.Parent $currentProcess.Path $currentProcess.ProcessName Start-Sleep -Seconds 120and this is the output:
PS C:\> .\script\example_script.ps1 Hello from process 16540; name: pwsh "C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\pwsh.exe" 5.25 . NPM(K) PM(M) WS(M) CPU(s) Id SI ProcessName ------ ----- ----- ------ -- -- ----------- 44 73.57 63.66 30.89 15976 1 WindowsTerminal C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\pwsh.exe pwshWhile the script was still in execution, I tried:
Get-Process | Select-String "example" Get-Process | Where-Object ProcessName -Match "example"but in either case there was no output.
I try to rephrase my doubt: if I run the script C:\script\example_script.ps1 from the PowerShell 7.4 command line, does that running script receive its own PID?
I ask because this is the case, for example, in Unix-like systems, with bash or other shells, and it can be shown in the list of processes.Instead, here, both $PID or [System.Diagnostics.Process]::GetCurrentProcess() seem only to show the PID of the shell where the script is run, as if a running script was not related to a separate PID. Is this the case?
A script isn't a process. It's uncompiled code that runs inside of an interpreter - a term you won't hear often in this era.
So, there is no concept of a process id for a script, as the process - and therefore the process id - is implicitly that of the interpreter running the script.
It's no different from earlier scripting iterations like those from the Windows Scripting Host (such as JavaScript and VBScript), where in that case, the process id would have been that of the Windows Scripting Host (be that WScript.exe or CScript.exe).
Is there a particular challenge you're trying to solve or are you just curious about the topic?
Cheers,
Lain
- write-host $PID should be the thing to print/display when running a script and if you want to show it.
