This function is ideal for checking if a given process is running, I have seen solutions that involve running the system utilites like PS and parsing the answer, which should work fine, but this allows you to check a given PID with a single call

function CheckPID( $PID )
{
        // Check if the passed in PID represents a vlaid process in the system
        // Returns true if it does
        // Turn off non-fatal runtime warning for a moment as we know we 
        // will get one if the PID does not represent a valid process
 
    $oldErrorLevel = error_reporting(0);
    error_reporting( $oldErrorLevel & ~E_WARNING );
    $res = pcntl_getpriority($PID);
    error_reporting( $oldErrorLevel);
    return ! ( $res === false);
}