GNU Parallel README

Please send problems and feedback to bug-parallel@gnu.org.

= Presentation of GNU Parallel =

GNU Parallel is a shell tool for executing jobs in parallel using one
or more computers. A job can be a single command or a small script
that has to be run for each of the lines in the input. The typical
input is a list of files, a list of hosts, a list of users, a list of
URLs, or a list of tables. A job can also be a command that reads from
a pipe. GNU Parallel can then split the input and pipe it into
commands in parallel.

If you use xargs and tee today you will find GNU Parallel very easy to
use as GNU Parallel is written to have the same options as xargs. If
you write loops in shell, you will find GNU Parallel may be able to
replace most of the loops and make them run faster by running several
jobs in parallel.

GNU Parallel makes sure output from the commands is the same output as
you would get had you run the commands sequentially. This makes it
possible to use output from GNU Parallel as input for other programs.


= 10 seconds installation =

For security reasons it is recommended you use your package manager to
install. But if you cannot do that then you can use this 10 seconds
installation.

The 10 seconds installation will try do to a full installation; if
that fails, a personal installation; if that fails, a minimal
installation.

    (wget -O - pi.dk/3 || curl pi.dk/3/ || fetch -o - http://pi.dk/3) | bash

This will literally install faster than reading the rest of this
document.


= Full installation =

Full installation of GNU Parallel is as simple as:

    wget http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/parallel/parallel-20170122.tar.bz2
    bzip2 -dc parallel-20170122.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -
    cd parallel-20170122
    ./configure && make && sudo make install


= Personal installation =

If you are not root you can add ~/bin to your path and install in
~/bin and ~/share:

    wget http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/parallel/parallel-20170122.tar.bz2
    bzip2 -dc parallel-20170122.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -
    cd parallel-20170122
    ./configure --prefix=$HOME && make && make install

Or if your system lacks 'make' you can simply copy src/parallel
src/sem src/niceload src/sql to a dir in your path.


= Minimal installation =

If you just need parallel and do not have 'make' installed (maybe the
system is old or Microsoft Windows):

    wget http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/parallel.git/plain/src/parallel
    chmod 755 parallel
    cp parallel sem
    mv parallel sem dir-in-your-$PATH/bin/


= Test the installation =

After this you should be able to do:

    parallel -j0 ping -nc 3 ::: qubes-os.org gnu.org freenetproject.org

This will send 3 ping packets to 3 different hosts in parallel and print
the output when they complete.

Watch the intro video for a quick introduction:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL284C9FF2488BC6D1

Walk through the tutorial (man parallel_tutorial). You command line
will love you for it.

When using programs that use GNU Parallel to process data for
publication please cite:

    O. Tange (2011): GNU Parallel - The Command-Line Power Tool,
    ;login: The USENIX Magazine, February 2011:42-47.


= New versions =

New versions will be released at: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parallel/