Here is somthing i'v experimented with (this only applies to tcsh) /bin/tcsh -c "pppd (bla bla bla) & ; jobs -l > /tmp/.ppp.pid"; then /tmp/.ppp.pid would look like this: [1] 28868 Done /usr/sbin/pppd then what is left is just to cat it with awk and finito. i even tested with files that execute for a milli second :) and this line was able to pick up the proccess with no problem.