lost the $ prompt - am I spawning shells??

When trying to get the correct syntax to cron a script that creates a file with the date stamp as its output, sometimes I get these results:

  • from the command line, I may encounter an error that leaves me without the usual $ prompt. Am I in a new shell? I try to exit it with 'exit' or :q! and cannot get my prompt back. I can exit my putty session and start a new one to get back to a $ prompt.

  • from cron, I get nothing - no error and no output file

My concern is that I am spawning processes that keep running, or shells that never die. Is that a valid concern? Is there a way I can check whether I am doing this?

Thanks,
-dog

You can also use pgrep