GNU Parallel - News: GNU Parallel 20110322 (the Japan release) released

GNU Parallel 20110322 (the Japan release) released

Item posted by Ole Tange <tange> on Tue 22 Mar 2011 12:36:18 AM UTC.

GNU Parallel 20110322 (the Japan release) has been released. It is available for download at: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parallel/

New in this release:

• --tollef to be switch compatible with Tollef's parallel. This will cause -l to mean --load, and the argument separator will be -- instead of :::

• --gnu will force GNU Parallel to behave like GNU Parallel even if --tollef is set.

• Site wide config file: /etc/parallel/config.

This should solve the issue with some packagers renaming GNU Parallel to gparallel to avoid the naming conflict.

By putting --tollef in the site wide config file you can deinstall Tollef's parallel and install GNU Parallel instead without any change for users or scripts. This is useful for packagers that currently rename GNU Parallel or simply do not distribute GNU Parallel because the command name conflicts with Tollef's parallel.

• -L 0 -n 0, and -N 0 implemented. They will read one argument, but insert 0 arguments on the command line. Useful if you just want to run the same command with the same arguments a number of times.

• GNU Parallel is now in Fink. Thanks to Jesse Alama. http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/package.php/parallel

• Opscode Cookbook for Chef. Thanks to Joshua Timberman. https://github.com/opscode/cookbooks/tree/master/gnu_parallel

• Man page examples translated into Japanese. Thanks to Koshigoe. http://w.koshigoe.jp/study/?%5Bsystem%5D+GNU+parallel+%BB%C8%CD%D1%CE%E3#l13

• GNU Parallel will be presented at:

  * LUGA, Augsburg, 2011-03-26, http://www.luga.de/Aktionen/LIT-2011/Programm
  * OSAA.dk, Aarhus, 2011-04-12

• Video of presentation from FSCONS 2010-11-07. The presenter was really hoarse that day (Something to do with loads of alcohol the night before). http://vimeo.com/20838834

• Review with examples in German. Thanks to M. Nieberg. http://kenntwas.de/2011/linux/gnu-parallel/

• A review of the --pipe option in German. Thanks to Mathias Huber. http://www.linux-magazin.de/NEWS/GNU-Parallel-20110205-stueckelt-Daten

• A small example of grepping maillogs. Thanks to François Maillet. http://www.francoismaillet.com/blog/?p=399

• Using GNU Parallel instead of xargs. Thanks to James Cuff. http://blog.jcuff.net/2011/02/on-train-ride-in.html

• Using GNU Parallel from 0install (German). Thanks to AdaMin. http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/gnu-parallel-mit-zero-install-kurzinfo-kein-wi/

• Bug fixes and man page updates.

About GNU Parallel

GNU Parallel is a shell tool for executing jobs in parallel using one or more computers. A job is 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.

You can find more about GNU Parallel at: http://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/

Watch the intro video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpaiGYxkSuQ or at http://tinyogg.com/watch/TORaR/ and http://tinyogg.com/watch/hfxKj/

When using GNU Parallel for a publication please cite:

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