Thus it was written in the epistle of Donna Garverick,
> my entirely non-scientific observations indicate that 'smallish' pids (in the
> 65k range) are the right number.  'large-ish' pids (like 196758 in the above
> example) are...well not :-)

In the UN*X world, you'll find something like this:

[ashted]$ ps -auxww | grep http
root       416  0.0  2.2  2636 1396 ?        S    Dec18   0:00 httpd
www        419  0.0  2.3  2708 1512 ?        S    Dec18   0:00 httpd
www        444  0.0  2.2  2648 1416 ?        S    Dec18   0:00 httpd
www        496  0.0  2.3  2672 1480 ?        S    Dec18   0:00 httpd
www        497  0.0  2.3  2672 1480 ?        S    Dec18   0:00 httpd
www       3005  0.0  2.3  2672 1480 ?        S    Dec19   0:00 httpd
www       3007  0.0  2.2  2648 1416 ?        S    Dec19   0:00 httpd
www       3008  0.0  2.2  2648 1416 ?        S    Dec19   0:00 httpd
www       3009  0.0  2.2  2648 1416 ?        S    Dec19   0:00 httpd
ashted    6234  1.0  0.6  1152  436 pts/1    S    14:44   0:00 grep http

Here, killing the smallest of the pids is generally the way to go because the
others are all children of the first and will go away when it does.

Ted "No it's not an answer, it's just a comment" Ashton
--
Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]), Info Sys, Southern Adventist University
          ==========================================================
I was just going to say, when I was interrupted, that one of the many ways
of classifying minds is under the heads of arithmetical and algebraical
intellects. All economical and practical wisdom is an extension of the
following arithmetical formula: 2 + 2 = 4. Every philosophical proposition
has the more general character of the expression a + b = c. We are mere
operatives, empirics, and egotists until we learn to think in letters
instead of figures.
                         -- Holmes, Oliver Wendell
          ==========================================================
         Deep thoughts to be found at http://www.southern.edu/~ashted