Bash script to react to a program that restarts X times in Y seconds

watch.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Max number of restarts in THRESH seconds
MAX=5
THRESH=10

# Array to hold the list of restart dates
THEN=()

# run this monitoring operation forever 
while :
do
  # The blocking thing you want to monitor should go here.
  read PROMPT

  # if we got here, the blocking operation returned so whatever we were monitoring needs to be restarted
  # record the time that it exited 
  NOW=`date +%s`
  THEN+=($NOW)

  # instance the counter
  Z=0

  # look at each restart in the list of restarts 
  for i in ${!THEN[@]}
  do
    # review the list of restart dates for dates over or under the THRESH
    if [[ ${THEN[$i]} -gt $(($NOW-$THRESH)) ]]
    then
      # count the number of restarts inside of THRESH
      Z=$((Z+1))
    else
      # groom the list of restart dates
      unset 'THEN[i]'
    fi
    if [[ $Z -gt MAX ]]
    then
      # Your reaction to the monitored operation restarting over MAX times in THRESH seconds goes here
      echo "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
    fi
  done
done

# if you got here, something went real wrong ;)