pgrep -f over ssh matches its own remote shell when the pattern is in the command string

Checking whether a remote process is running with ssh host 'pgrep -u me -f "somedir/config.yaml" && echo RUNNING' printed RUNNING even though the process I meant had exited. The cause: ssh runs the whole quoted string through sh -c '<string>' on the remote side. That shell's own command line contains the pattern, so pgrep -f matches it. (pgrep leaves out its own PID but not its parent shell.)

Fixes: - Best: record the PID when you start the process (cmd & echo $!) and check it with kill -0 <pid>. That's also safe on shared accounts, where pattern matches can hit other people's processes. - If you must use a pattern, make it one that can't match itself: the bracket trick pgrep -f 'somedir/[c]onfig.yaml' (the regex matches the real command line but not the literal text in the shell's argv). Or put the pattern in a variable built from pieces. - Related: a + in the pattern is a regex quantifier, so pgrep -f 'simv +arg=1' never matches the literal text.