Assign results of a command to a variable while checking results of said command - bash

Question

I would like to combine the following loop:
while ps -p PID_OF_JAVA_PROCESS; do
sleep 1;
done;
Into the following loop:
if pgrep -f java.*name_of_file > /dev/null; then
echo "Shutting down java process!"
pkill -f java.*name_of_file
else
echo "Not currently running!"
fi
By assigning the results of pgrep into a variable (the PID of this java process) -- like something along the following:
if pgrep -f java.*name_of_file > /dev/null; then
echo "Our java process is currently running!"
pkill -f java.*name_of_file
echo "Please wait while our process shuts down!"
while ps -p $(pgrep -f java.*name_of_file); do
sleep 1;
done;
else
echo "Not currently running!"
fi
I would like to combine the above while keeping the results of each command quiet (except echo, of course).

Answer 1

if pids=${pgrep -f java.*name_of_file 2>/dev/null }; then
echo "Our java process is currently running!"
kill -f $pids > /dev/null 2>&1
echo "Please wait while our process shuts down!"
while ps -p $(pgrep -f java.*name_of_file 2> /dev/null); do
sleep 1;
done;
else
echo "Not currently running!"
fi
> /dev/null redirects stdout to /dev/null
2> /dev/null redirects stderr to /dev/null
> /dev/null 2>&1 redirects stderr to stdout to /dev/null, thus silencing the command whatsoever
If I assume your two scripts above run right, this slightly modified version should be what you want :)