Announce: parallel - build and execute command lines from standard input in parallel

I have made a tool called parallel. It combines the best
from xargs,
find -exec, and cat|sh with the ability to run a number of
commands in
parallel.

Parallel can - just like xargs - be used on its own, but is
too small
to qualify for its own package. I would therefore like to
see it
adopted by findutils at some point.

But first you should point your browser to:

https:
//savannah.nongnu.org/projects/parallel/

and to:

http:
//git.savannah.nongnu.org/gitweb/?p=parallel.git;a=snapshot;
h=67f2a6dfaa3c343044c7f420a9e414935016e6d8


Feel free to comment,

Ole Tange

Dear Ole,

> I have made a tool called parallel. It combines the
best from xargs,
> find -exec, and cat|sh with the ability to run a number
of commands in
> parallel.

How exactly does it differ from xargs in usage or features?
Wouldn't it be feasible to augment xargs to support those
things?

  Leslie

On 9/11/07, Leslie P. Polzer <leslie.polzergmx.net> wrote:
>
> Dear Ole,
>
> > I have made a tool called parallel. It combines
the best from xargs,
> > find -exec, and cat|sh with the ability to run a
number of commands in
> > parallel.
>
> How exactly does it differ from xargs in usage or
features?

I have made a section in the man page about exactly that.
Let me know
if it is still unclear after reading that.

> Wouldn't it be feasible to augment xargs to support
those things?

There are several problems. These are the primary:

* It will change the behaviour of xargs. If you give xargs
the input
"foo bar", it will see it as "foo"
"bar", where as parallel will see
it as "foo bar" unless you tell it to do
otherwise.

* It will not be coded by me, as I will not have time to
brush up on
my C-skills to be able to code that.


/Ole