Knowing when bash is done running a command through a FIFO pipe

I'm trying to link a web-based terminal with bash. My current attempt to do so is spawning a shell pointing a FIFO pipe to its input, like this: Terminal 1 $ mkfifo pipe $ bash pipe file1 file2 file4 Terminal 2 $ echo "ls" > pipe As you might be able to tell, I am only getting command responses from spawning the shell in _Terminal 1_ (obviously). Is it possible for me to tell if bash is idle or not? I need to know when to show $PS1 on the client side. If I run something like apt-get install curl -y, the command is continuous and finishes when it finishes. I need to know when it is finished so that on the front-end, I can show the terminal prompt. Any ideas?