Linux shell script duplicated on process list

Question

I have developed a Bash script that accepts parameters:

$ head -n 3 MyScript.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# This is my script
#... do something

I call it via CRON at different scheduling and with different parameters:

$ crontab -l
* * * * * MyScript.sh 1 -t 600
*/2 * * * * MyScript.sh 40
*/3 * * * * MyScript.sh 41,42
*/5 * * * * MyScript.sh 61
* * * * * MyScript.sh 21

When wanting to know what instances are running (the script is not very long, just a few seconds of execution):

$ pgrep -f -a -l "MyScript.sh"
25003 /bin/sh -c MyScript.sh 21
25005 /bin/sh -c MyScript.sh 41,42
25006 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 21
25007 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 41,42
25008 /bin/sh -c MyScript.sh 40
25009 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 40
25010 /bin/sh -c MyScript.sh 1 -t 600
25012 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 1 -t 600

We can see in the above example the MyScript.sh 21 (and any other) instance apparently running twice, one of them started via bash and the other one via /bin/sh -c . Both do start and finish at the same time, as I have confirmed with htop.

I am performing these tests in RaspBian (Debian based).

Here below is a example of what happens when running the same script on FreeBSD:

$ pgrep -f -a -l "MyScript.sh"
78230 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 103
78106 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 470
77484 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 2
77430 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 451
77019 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 52
76922 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 101 -v -d
76642 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 1 -t 600
76174 bash /bin/MyScript.sh 102 -v -d

As can be seen, BSD doesn't have these repeated instances.

Why is this happening on RaspBian and how could I solve it? Actually, do I need to "solve" it at all?

Answer 1

Your script is doing something inside of subshells. Example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

sleep 10
echo outer done

#!/usr/bin/env bash

(sleep 10; echo inner done)
echo outer done

If you run the first one of those, there's no subshell, so you'll only see one of it in the process list. If you run the second one of those, there is a subshell, so it will fork and you'll see two of it in the process list. (If you want more details on your exact situation, then please post the full contents of your script in the question.)