How to get a specific PID #

[Joel Rees]

2015/12/30 7:40 "rikona" <rikona at sonic.net>:
>
> Running 12.04 updated. I often have several instances of Kate open in
> various desktops, and occasionally one of them becomes unresponsive,
> but could be closed without losing something important. [Can move
> window, no menus come up, no keys seem to do anything, can't close]
> How can I find out which PID # is associated with a particular
> instance of Kate [or any other pgm] on a particular desktop, so I can
> close just THAT instance? I can see them all in htop, but which is
> which?
>
> Thanks,
>
>  rikona

If you have nothing against using the command line, open each file
from the command line. I do this with gedit like this:

   gedit apple.c &

using the trailing & to avoid tying up the terminal. My memory is that
kate works similarly.

I personally don't open every file this way. I tend to use it more for
things like

    gedit *_io.[c,h] &

which is exactly the opposite of what you are trying to do.

On MSWindows, using the command line with gedit will result in
separate windows. On Linux OSses that I use, gedit will collect
instances opened in one workspace as tabs in one window in the that
workspace. You grab the tab and move one tab into its own window or
from window to window in many OSses.

I don't remember whether Kate collects instances for you.

FWIW, If I get a single window hung, I'll save what I can and kill all
the instances. Trying to kill only the offending instance is usually a
waste of time, and sometimes the freeze just moves to other open
windows because the problem is the desktop environment as much as the
app.

We still have a long way to go to get to the correct paradigm for this
kind of thing, and everytime we take a real step forward, there's some
cocksure code jock that has to do a somethingd that he insists
everyone do with him, and thus set us back n years.

But it's educational, so, why not? Taking the whole industry back in
time every now and again is probably not a bad idea, because we, the
entire industry, really don't know what we are doing yet.

--
Joel Rees
Ranting is free!
http://free-is-not-free.blogspot.jp/