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
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
LainRobertson wrote: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.
This is very clarifying.
Is there a particular challenge you're trying to solve or are you just curious about the topic?
No, it was just out of curiosity: as mentioned before, I looked for a similarity between bash (or ksh, or other Unix-like shells) and PowerShell. But they are different as regards this aspect.
I was also looking for this to obtain the status of the script execution, after the system exits from sleep mode.