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tools: write down the pgrep -f trap that has now cost four mistakes

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An agent's commands run through a wrapper shell whose command line contains the
pattern being searched for, so `pgrep -f 'pilot\.py'` matches the shell running
that very pgrep, and `pkill -f 'fly_session|pilot\.py'` kills it mid-script. In
one session this killed two running scripts and twice made an "is it already
running?" guard answer yes because it had found itself. The [p]ilot bracket trick
does not help, because the real invocation appears on the wrapper's command line
too.

Recorded with what works instead: pgrep -x on the exact name, or ps -eo args
filtered against the snapshot-bash path that every wrapper carries, then kill by
explicit pid.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PMRJjbxLqZtsb5Vb7KunPE
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Sylpheed RE agent
2026-08-24 08:52:24 +00:00
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tools/re-capture/README.md
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@@ -33,3 +33,30 @@ Findings produced with these: [`docs/re/weapon-datasheet-runtime.md`](../../docs
Snapshot first — `cp --sparse=always /dev/shm/xenia_memory_* snap.bin` (~2 s) — and
point `$GMEM_FILE` at the copy; the running emulator pegs every core under lavapipe.
## 🔴 `pgrep -f` / `pkill -f` match YOUR OWN shell
An agent driving this toolkit runs its commands through a wrapper shell whose
**command line contains the pattern being searched for**. So
```bash
pgrep -f 'pilot\.py' # matches the wrapper running this very command
pkill -f 'fly_session|pilot\.py' # kills that wrapper — the script dies mid-way
```
This has cost four separate mistakes in one session: two scripts killed
mid-execution, and twice a "is it already running?" guard that answered *yes*
because it had found itself. The `[p]ilot` bracket trick does **not** help when
the literal invocation (`python3 pilot.py …`) also appears on the wrapper's
command line.
What works:
```bash
pgrep -x xenia_canary # exact NAME match, no -f
ps -eo pid,args | grep 'python3 pilot.py' | grep -v snapshot-bash
kill -9 <explicit pid> # look it up first, then kill by pid
```
The `snapshot-bash` filter is the reliable tell: the wrapper's command line
always contains the shell-snapshot path.