Patent ID: 8473918

Claim:
A method for singleton process control in a computer environment, comprising: storing a process identification (PID) of a last spawned process for a background process in a first temporary file, the PID stored by a parent process, and subsequently accessed by the background process that is initialized; initializing a background process variable for keeping track of a predetermined number of tries the parent process is checked to determine if the parent process is alive; determining if the parent process is alive for the predetermined number of tries, wherein a PID of the background process is written from the first temporary file into a first PID variable when the parent process ends; storing into the background process variable for so long as the parent process is active; determining whether a second, global temporary file is empty, wherein: if the global temporary file is empty: commencing for a first time an associated program with the PID of the background process if a second, global temporary file is empty, and storing the PID of the background process from the first temporary file into the second, global temporary file, and if the global temporary file is not empty: determining if an existing PID stored within the second, global temporary file is active, wherein if the existing PID is determined to be active in the second, global temporary file, exiting a process associated with the existing PID, and if the existing PID is determined to be not active in the second, global temporary file, storing the PID of the background process from the first temporary file into the second, global temporary file; writing the existing PID to a second PID variable; and executing a singleton code block.