--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/python/process.py	Tue Nov 08 12:08:11 2011 -0800
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+import os
+import shlex
+import subprocess
+import sys
+
+def ps():
+    retval = []
+    process = subprocess.Popen(['ps', 'axwww'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+    stdout, _ = process.communicate()
+    header = None
+    for line in stdout.splitlines():
+        line = line.strip()
+        if header is None:
+            # first line is the header
+            header = line.split()
+            continue
+        split = line.split(None, len(header)-1)
+        process_dict = dict(zip(header, split))
+        retval.append(process_dict)
+    return retval
+
+def running_processes(name):
+    """
+    returns a list of 
+    {'PID': PID of process (int)
+     'command': command line of process (list)}
+     with the executable named `name`
+    """
+    retval = []
+    for process in ps():
+        command = process['COMMAND']
+        command = shlex.split(command)
+        prog = command[0]
+        basename = os.path.basename(prog)
+        if basename == name:
+            retval.append((int(process['PID']), command))
+    return retval
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    for arg in sys.argv[1:]:
+        processes = running_processes(arg)
+        for pid, command in processes:
+            print '%s %s : %s' % (pid, arg, command)