Error message re killing non-numeric process: help please

[dinkypumpkin]

On 22/04/2012 10:26, Alastair wrote:
> I have been running --pvr as cron job every 24 hours at night.
> I woke up to find machine stalled with a stack of get_iplayer processes running but nothing
> happening.  Couldn't find how to stop them other than killing them and now when I try and
> start --pvr in console I get error message:
>
> Can't kill a non-numeric process ID at /urs/bin/get_iplayer line 2820.

Look for this file:

$HOME/.get_iplayer/pvr_lock

and move it to another directory.  You can also delete it, but I would 
like to investigate a bit further.  Now try --pvr again.  If that file 
doesn't exist, then we have a deeper mystery.

If it does exists, what do you see in the "pvr_lock" file?  It should 
just be a single integer value, but something seems to have gone wrong 
on your machine.