GNU Parallel

NAME
parallel - build and execute shell command lines from standard input in parallelSYNOPSIS
parallel [options] [command [arguments]] < list_of_arguments
parallel [options] [command [arguments]] ( ::: arguments | :::+ arguments | :::: argfile(s) | ::::+
argfile(s) ) ...
parallel --semaphore [options] command#!/usr/bin/parallel --shebang [options] [command [arguments]]#!/usr/bin/parallel --shebang-wrap [options] [command [arguments]]

DESCRIPTIONSTOP!
Read the Reader's guide below if you are new to GNU parallel.
GNU parallel is a shell tool for executing jobs in parallel using one or more computers. A job can be asingle 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 acommand that reads from a pipe. GNU parallel can then split the input into blocks and pipe a block
into each command 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 forother programs.
For each line of input GNU parallel will execute command with the line as arguments. If no commandis given, the line of input is executed. Several lines will be run in parallel. GNU parallel can often be
used as a substitute for xargs or cat | bash.

Reader's guide
GNU parallel includes the 4 types of documentation: Tutorial, how-to, reference andexplanation/design.
Tutorial
If you prefer reading a book buy GNU Parallel 2018 athttps://www.lulu.com/shop/ole-tange/gnu-parallel-2018/paperback/product-23558902.html or
download it at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1146014 Read at least chapter 1+2. It should take youless than 20 minutes.
Otherwise start by watching the intro videos for a quick introduction:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL284C9FF2488BC6D1
If you want to dive deeper: spend a couple of hours walking through the tutorial (manparallel_tutorial). Your command line will love you for it.
How-toYou can find a lot of examples of use in man parallel_examples. They will give you an idea of what
GNU parallel is capable of, and you may find a solution you can simply adapt to your situation.
If the example do not cover your exact needs, the options map(https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/parallel_options_map.pdf) can help you identify options that are
related, so you can look these up in the man page.
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Reference
If you need a one page printable cheat sheet you can find it on:
https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/parallel_cheat.pdf
The man page is the reference for all options, and reading the man page from cover to cover isprobably not what you need.
Design discussion
If you want to know the design decisions behind GNU parallel, try: man parallel_design. This is also
a good intro if you intend to change GNU parallel.

OPTIONS
commandCommand to execute.
If command or the following arguments contain replacement strings (such as {}) every
instance will be substituted with the input.
If command is given, GNU parallel solve the same tasks as xargs. If command is not given
GNU parallel will behave similar to cat | sh.
The command must be an executable, a script, a composed command, an alias, or a function.
Bash functions: export -f the function first or use env_parallel.
Bash, Csh, or Tcsh aliases: Use env_parallel.
Zsh, Fish, Ksh, and Pdksh functions and aliases: Use env_parallel.
{} (beta testing)
Input line.
This replacement string will be replaced by a full line read from the input source. The input
source is normally stdin (standard input), but can also be given with --arg-file, :::, or ::::.
The replacement string {} can be changed with -I.
If the command line contains no replacement strings then {} will be appended to the commandline.
Replacement strings are normally quoted, so special characters are not parsed by the shell.
The exception is if the command starts with a replacement string; then the string is not quoted.
See also: --plus {.} {/} {//} {/.} {#} {%} {n} {=perl expression=}{.} (beta testing)
Input line without extension.
This replacement string will be replaced by the input with the extension removed. If the input
line contains . after the last /, the last . until the end of the string will be removed and {.} will be
replaced with the remaining. E.g. foo.jpg becomes foo, subdir/foo.jpg becomes subdir/foo,
sub.dir/foo.jpg becomes sub.dir/foo, sub.dir/bar remains sub.dir/bar. If the input line does notcontain . it will remain unchanged.
The replacement string {.} can be changed with --extensionreplace
See also: {} --extensionreplace{/} (beta testing)
Basename of input line.
This replacement string will be replaced by the input with the directory part removed.
See also: {} --basenamereplace{//} (beta testing)
Dirname of input line.
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This replacement string will be replaced by the dir of the input line. See dirname(1).
See also: {} --dirnamereplace{/.} (beta testing)
Basename of input line without extension.
This replacement string will be replaced by the input with the directory and extension part
removed. {/.} is a combination of {/} and {.}.
See also: {} --basenameextensionreplace{#} (beta testing)Sequence number of the job to run.
This replacement string will be replaced by the sequence number of the job being run. It
contains the same number as $PARALLEL_SEQ.
See also: {} --seqreplace{%} (beta testing)
Job slot number.
This replacement string will be replaced by the job's slot number between 1 and number ofjobs to run in parallel. There will never be 2 jobs running at the same time with the same job
slot number.
If the job needs to be retried (e.g using --retries or --retry-failed) the job slot is not
automatically updated. You should then instead use $PARALLEL_JOBSLOT:$ do_test() {id="$3 {%}=$1 PARALLEL_JOBSLOT=$2"
echo run "$id";
sleep 1
# fail if {%} is odd
return `echo $1%2 | bc`}$ export -f do_test$ parallel -j3 --jl mylog do_test {%} \$PARALLEL_JOBSLOT {} ::: A B
C D
run A {%}=1 PARALLEL_JOBSLOT=1
run B {%}=2 PARALLEL_JOBSLOT=2
run C {%}=3 PARALLEL_JOBSLOT=3
run D {%}=1 PARALLEL_JOBSLOT=1$ parallel --retry-failed -j3 --jl mylog do_test {%}\$PARALLEL_JOBSLOT {} ::: A B C D
run A {%}=1 PARALLEL_JOBSLOT=1
run C {%}=3 PARALLEL_JOBSLOT=2
run D {%}=1 PARALLEL_JOBSLOT=3
Notice how {%} and $PARALLEL_JOBSLOT differ in the retry run of C and D.
See also: {} --jobs --slotreplace{n} (beta testing)Argument from input source n or the n'th argument.
This positional replacement string will be replaced by the input from input source n (whenused with --arg-file or ::::) or with the n'th argument (when used with -N or --colsep).
If n is negative it refers to the n'th last argument.
See also: {} {n.} {n/} {n//} {n/.} --colsep{n.} (beta testing)
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Argument from input source n or the n'th argument without extension.
{n.} is a combination of {n} and {.}.
This positional replacement string will be replaced by the input from input source n (whenused with --arg-file or ::::) or with the n'th argument (when used with -N). The input will havethe extension removed.
See also: {n} {.}{n/} (beta testing)
Basename of argument from input source n or the n'th argument.
{n/} is a combination of {n} and {/}.
This positional replacement string will be replaced by the input from input source n (whenused with --arg-file or ::::) or with the n'th argument (when used with -N). The input will havethe directory (if any) removed.
See also: {n} {/}{n//} (beta testing)
Dirname of argument from input source n or the n'th argument.
{n//} is a combination of {n} and {//}.
This positional replacement string will be replaced by the dir of the input from input source n(when used with --arg-file or ::::) or with the n'th argument (when used with -N). See dirname(1).
See also: {n} {//}
{n/.} (beta testing)
Basename of argument from input source n or the n'th argument without extension.
{n/.} is a combination of {n}, {/}, and {.}.
This positional replacement string will be replaced by the input from input source n (whenused with --arg-file or ::::) or with the n'th argument (when used with -N). The input will havethe directory (if any) and extension removed.
See also: {n} {/.}{=perl expression=} (beta testing)
Replace with calculated perl expression.
$_ will contain the same as {}. After evaluating perl expression $_ will be used as the value. It
is recommended to only change $_ but you have full access to all of GNU parallel's internalfunctions and data structures.
The expression must give the same result if evaluated twice - otherwise the behaviour is
undefined. E.g. in some versions of GNU parallel this will not work as expected:
parallel echo '{= $_= ++$wrong_counter =}' ::: a b c
A few convenience functions and data structures have been made:Q(string)
Shell quote a string. Example:
parallel echo {} is quoted as '{= $_=Q($_) =}' ::: \$PWD
pQ(string)
Perl quote a string. Example:
parallel echo {} is quoted as '{= $_=pQ($_) =}' ::: \$PWD
uq() (or uq)
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Do not quote current replacement string. Example:
parallel echo {} has the value '{= uq =}' ::: \$PWD
hash(val)Compute B::hash(val). Example:
parallel echo Hash of {} is '{= $_=hash($_) =}' ::: a b c
total_jobs()
Number of jobs in total. Example:
parallel echo Number of jobs: '{= $_=total_jobs() =}' ::: a b cslot()
Slot number of job. Example:
parallel echo Job slot of {} is '{= $_=slot() =}' ::: a b cseq()
Sequence number of job. Example:
parallel echo Seq number of {} is '{= $_=seq() =}' ::: a b c@arg
The arguments counting from 1 ($arg[1] = {1} = first argument). Example:
parallel echo {1}+{2}='{=1 $_=$arg[1]+$arg[2] =}' \::: 1 2 3 ::: 2 3 4('{=1' forces this to be a positional replacement string, and therefore will not repeat thevalue for each arg.)skip()
Skip this job (see also --filter). Example:
parallel echo '{= $arg[1] >= $arg[2] and skip =}' \::: 1 2 3 ::: 2 3 4
yyyy_mm_dd_hh_mm_ss(sec)yyyy_mm_dd_hh_mm(sec)yyyy_mm_dd(sec)hh_mm_ss(sec)hh_mm(sec)yyyymmddhhmmss(sec)yyyymmddhhmm(sec)yyyymmdd(sec)hhmmss(sec)hhmm(sec)
Time functions. sec is number of seconds since epoch. If left out it will use current local
time. Example:
parallel echo 'Now: {= $_=yyyy_mm_dd_hh_mm_ss() =}' ::: Dummyparallel echo 'The end: {= $_=yyyy_mm_dd_hh_mm_ss($_) =}' \::: 2147483648
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Example:seq 10 | parallel echo {} + 1 is {= '$_++' =}parallel csh -c {= '$_="mkdir ".Q($_)' =} ::: '12" dir'seq 50 | parallel echo job {#} of {= '$_=total_jobs()' =}See also: --rpl --parens {} {=n perl expression=} --filter{=n perl expression=} (beta testing)
Positional equivalent to {=perl expression=}.
To understand positional replacement strings see {n}.
See also: {=perl expression=} {n}{rpl:format} (beta testing)Format replacement string.
Use format to format rpl. format is a format string used in printf. rpl is a replacement string.
Examples:{#:%04d} - Job number ({#}) with 4 digits prepended with 0{%:%02d} - Job slot ({%}) with 2 digits prepended with 0{:%6s} - Input line ({}) right aligned 6 chars wide{/:%12s} - Basename ({/}) right aligned 12 chars wide
{2:%8.2f} - Second input source ({2}) 8 chars wide, 2 decimals
Format strings also works on replacement strings defined via --rpl that start with '{'.
See also: {} {n} --rpl::: arguments
Use arguments on the command line as input source.
Unlike other options for GNU parallel ::: is placed after the command and before thearguments.
The following are equivalent:(echo file1; echo file2) | parallel gzip
parallel gzip ::: file1 file2
parallel gzip {} ::: file1 file2
parallel --arg-sep ,, gzip {} ,, file1 file2
parallel --arg-sep ,, gzip ,, file1 file2
parallel ::: "gzip file1" "gzip file2"
To avoid treating ::: as special use --arg-sep to set the argument separator to something else.
If multiple ::: are given, each group will be treated as an input source, and all combinations of
input sources will be generated. E.g. ::: 1 2 ::: a b c will result in the combinations (1,a) (1,b)(1,c) (2,a) (2,b) (2,c). This is useful for replacing nested for-loops.
:::, ::::, and --arg-file can be mixed. So these are equivalent:parallel echo {1} {2} {3} ::: 6 7 ::: 4 5 ::: 1 2 3parallel echo {1} {2} {3} :::: <(seq 6 7) <(seq 4 5) \:::: <(seq 1 3)
parallel -a <(seq 6 7) echo {1} {2} {3} :::: <(seq 4 5) \:::: <(seq 1 3)
parallel -a <(seq 6 7) -a <(seq 4 5) echo {1} {2} {3} \::: 1 2 3
seq 6 7 | parallel -a - -a <(seq 4 5) echo {1} {2} {3} \::: 1 2 3
seq 4 5 | parallel echo {1} {2} {3} :::: <(seq 6 7) - \::: 1 2 3
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See also: --arg-sep --arg-file :::: :::+ ::::+ --link:::+ arguments
Like ::: but linked like --link to the previous input source.
Contrary to --link, values do not wrap: The shortest input source determines the length.
Example:parallel echo ::: a b c :::+ 1 2 3 ::: X Y :::+ 11 22
See also: ::::+ --link:::: argfiles
Another way to write --arg-file argfile1 --arg-file argfile2 ...
::: and :::: can be mixed.
See also: --arg-file ::: ::::+ --link::::+ argfiles
Like :::: but linked like --link to the previous input source.
Contrary to --link, values do not wrap: The shortest input source determines the length.
See also: --arg-file :::+ --link--null-0
Use NUL as delimiter.
Normally input lines will end in \n (newline). If they end in \0 (NUL), then use this option. It isuseful for processing arguments that may contain \n (newline).
Shorthand for --delimiter '\0'.
See also: --delimiter--arg-file input-file-a input-file
Use input-file as input source.
If multiple --arg-file are given, each input-file will be treated as an input source, and all
combinations of input sources will be generated. E.g. The file foo contains 1 2, the file bar
contains a b c. -a foo -a bar will result in the combinations (1,a) (1,b) (1,c) (2,a) (2,b) (2,c).
This is useful for replacing nested for-loops.
If input-file starts with + the file will be linked to the previous --arg-file E.g. The file foo
contains 1 2, the file bar contains a b. -a foo -a +bar will result in the combinations (1,a) (2,b)
like --link instead of generating all combinations.
See also: --link {n} :::: ::::+ :::--arg-file-sep sep-str
Use sep-str instead of :::: as separator string between command and argument files.
Useful if :::: is used for something else by the command.
See also: ::::--arg-sep sep-str
Use sep-str instead of ::: as separator string.
Useful if ::: is used for something else by the command.
Also useful if you command uses ::: but you still want to read arguments from stdin (standard
input): Simply change --arg-sep to a string that is not in the command line.
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See also: :::--bar
Show progress as a progress bar.
In the bar is shown: % of jobs completed, estimated seconds left, and number of jobs started.
It is compatible with zenity:
seq 1000 | parallel -j30 --bar '(echo {};sleep 0.1)' \2> >(perl -pe 'BEGIN{$/="\r";$|=1};s/\r/\n/g' |zenity --progress --auto-kill) | wc
See also: --eta --progress --total-jobs--basefile file--bf file
file will be transferred to each sshlogin before first job is started.
It will be removed if --cleanup is active. The file may be a script to run or some common basedata needed for the job. Multiple --bf can be specified to transfer more basefiles. The file willbe transferred the same way as --transferfile.
See also: --sshlogin --transfer --return --cleanup --workdir--basenamereplace replace-str--bnr replace-str
Use the replacement string replace-str instead of {/} for basename of input line.
See also: {/}--basenameextensionreplace replace-str--bner replace-str
Use the replacement string replace-str instead of {/.} for basename of input line without
extension.
See also: {/.}--bin binexpr
Use binexpr as binning key and bin input to the jobs.
binexpr is [column number|column name] [perlexpression] e.g.:3Address
3 $_%=100
Address s/\D//g
Each input line is split using --colsep. The value of the column is put into $_, the perl
expression is executed, the resulting value is is the job slot that will be given the line. If thevalue is bigger than the number of jobslots the value will be modulo number of jobslots.
This is similar to --shard but the hashing algorithm is a simple modulo, which makes it
predictible which jobslot will receive which value.
The performance is in the order of 100K rows per second. Faster if the bincol is small (<10),
slower if it is big (>100).
--bin requires --pipe and a fixed numeric value for --jobs.
See also: SPREADING BLOCKS OF DATA --group-by --round-robin --shard--bg
Run command in background.
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GNU parallel will normally wait for the completion of a job. With --bg GNU parallel will not
wait for completion of the command before exiting.
This is the default if --semaphore is set.
Implies --semaphore.
See also: --fg man sem--citation
Print the citation notice and BibTeX entry for GNU parallel, silence citation notice for all futureruns, and exit. It will not run any commands.
If it is impossible for you to run --citation you can instead use --will-cite, which will run
commands, but which will only silence the citation notice for this single run.
If you use --will-cite in scripts to be run by others you are making it harder for others to see
the citation notice. The development of GNU parallel is indirectly financed through citations,so if your users do not know they should cite then you are making it harder to financedevelopment. However, if you pay 10000 EUR, you have done your part to finance future
development and should feel free to use --will-cite in scripts.
If you do not want to help financing future development by letting other users see the citation
notice or by paying, then please consider using another tool instead of GNU parallel. You canfind some of the alternatives in man parallel_alternatives.
--block size--block-size size
Size of block in bytes to read at a time.
The size can be postfixed with K, M, G, T, P, k, m, g, t, or p.
GNU parallel tries to meet the block size but can be off by the length of one record. For
performance reasons size should be bigger than a two records. GNU parallel will warn you
and automatically increase the size if you choose a size that is too small.
If you use -N, --block should be bigger than N+1 records.
size defaults to 1M.
When using --pipe-part a negative block size is not interpreted as a blocksize but as thenumber of blocks each jobslot should have. So this will run 10*5 = 50 jobs in total:
parallel --pipe-part -a myfile --block -10 -j5 wc
This is an efficient alternative to --round-robin because data is never read by GNU parallel,
but you can still have very few jobslots process large amounts of data.
See also: UNIT PREFIX -N --pipe --pipe-part --round-robin --block-timeout--block-timeout duration--bt duration
Timeout for reading block when using --pipe.
If it takes longer than duration to read a full block, use the partial block read so far.
duration is in seconds, but can be postfixed with s, m, h, or d.
See also: TIME POSTFIXES --pipe --block--cat
Create a temporary file with content.
Normally --pipe/--pipe-part will give data to the program on stdin (standard input). With --cat
GNU parallel will create a temporary file with the name in {}, so you can do: parallel --pipe--cat wc {}.
Implies --pipe unless --pipe-part is used.
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See also: --pipe --pipe-part --fifo--cleanup
Remove transferred files.
--cleanup will remove the transferred files on the remote computer after processing is done.
find log -name '*gz' | parallel \--sshlogin server.example.com --transferfile {} \--return {.}.bz2 --cleanup "zcat {} | bzip -9 >{.}.bz2"
With --transferfile {} the file transferred to the remote computer will be removed on the
remote computer. Directories on the remote computer containing the file will be removed ifthey are empty.
With --return the file transferred from the remote computer will be removed on the remotecomputer. Directories on the remote computer containing the file will be removed if they are
empty.
--cleanup is ignored when not used with --basefile, --transfer, --transferfile or --return.
See also: --basefile --transfer --transferfile --sshlogin --return--colorColour output.
Colour the output. Each job gets its own colour combination (background+foreground).
--color is ignored when using -u.
See also: --color-failed--color-failed--cf
Colour the output from failing jobs white on red.
Useful if you have a lot of jobs and want to focus on the failing jobs.
--color-failed is ignored when using -u, --line-buffer and unreliable when using --latest-line.
See also: --color--colsep regexp-C regexp
Column separator.
The input will be treated as a table with regexp separating the columns. The n'th column canbe accessed using {n} or {n.}. E.g. {3} is the 3rd column.
If there are more input sources, each input source will be separated, but the columns fromeach input source will be linked. Here {4} refers to column 2 in input source 2:parallel --colsep '-' echo {4} {3} {2} {1} \::: A-B C-D ::: e-f g-h--colsep implies --trim rl, which can be overridden with --trim n.
regexp is a Perl Regular Expression: https://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html
See also: --csv {n} --trim --link --match--combineexec name--combine-executable nameCombine GNU parallel with another program into a single executable.
Let us say you have developed myprg which takes a single argument. You do not want toparallelize it yourself.
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You could write a wrapper that uses GNU parallel called myparprg:#!/bin/shparallel myprg ::: "$@"
But for others to use this, they need to install: GNU parallel, myprg, and myparprg.
It would be easier to install if all could be packed into a single executable.
If myprg is written in shell, you can use --embed.
If myprg is a binary you can use --combineexec.
Here we use gzip as example:
parallel --combineexec pargzip gzip -9 :::You can now do:./pargzip foo bar baz
If you want to pass options to gzip you can do:parallel --combineexec pargzip gzip
Followed by:./pargzip -1 ::: foo bar baz
See also: --embed --shebang --shebang-wrap--compress
Compress temporary files.
If the output is big and very compressible this will take up less disk space in $TMPDIR andpossibly be faster due to less disk I/O.
GNU parallel will try pzstd, lbzip2, pbzip2, zstd, pigz, lz4, lzop, plzip, lzip, lrz, gzip, pxz,lzma, bzip2, xz, clzip, in that order, and use the first available.
GNU parallel will use up to 8 processes per job waiting to be printed. See manparallel_design for details.
See also: --compress-program--compress-program prg--decompress-program prg
Use prg for (de)compressing temporary files.
It is assumed that prg -dc will decompress stdin (standard input) to stdout (standard output)
unless --decompress-program is given.
See also: --compress--csv
Treat input as CSV-format.
--colsep sets the field delimiter. --csv works very much like --colsep except it deals correctlywith quoting. Compare:echo '"1 big, 2 small","2""x4"" plank",12.34' |parallel --csv echo {1} of {2} at {3}echo '"1 big, 2 small","2""x4"" plank",12.34' |parallel --colsep ',' echo {1} of {2} at {3}Even quoted newlines are parsed correctly:
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GNU Parallel(echo '"Start of field 1 with newline'
echo 'Line 2 in field 1";value 2') |parallel --csv --colsep ';' echo Field 1: {1} Field 2: {2}When used with --pipe it will only pass full CSV-records.
See also: --pipe --link {n} --colsep --header --match--ctag (obsolete: use --color --tag)
Color tag.
If the values look very similar looking at the output it can be hard to tell when a new value isused. --ctag gives each value a random color.
See also: --color --tag--ctagstring str (obsolete: use --color --tagstring)
Color tagstring.
See also: --color --ctag --tagstring--delay duration
Delay starting next job by duration.
GNU parallel will not start another job for the next duration.
duration is in seconds, but can be postfixed with s, m, h, or d.
If you append 'auto' to duration (e.g. 13m3sauto) GNU parallel will automatically try to find the
optimal value: If a job fails, duration is increased by 30%. If a job succeeds, duration isdecreased by 10%.
See also: TIME POSTFIXES --retries --ssh-delay--delimiter delim-d delim
Input records are terminated by delim.
The specified delimiter may be characters, C-style character escapes such as \n, or octal(\012) or hexadecimal (\x0A) escape codes. Octal and hexadecimal escape codes areunderstood as for the printf command.
See also: --colsep--dirnamereplace replace-str--dnr replace-str
Use the replacement string replace-str instead of {//} for dirname of input line.
See also: {//}--dry-runPrint the job to run on stdout (standard output), but do not run the job.
Use -v -v to include the wrapping that GNU parallel generates (for remote jobs, --tmux, --nice, --pipe, --pipe-part, --fifo and --cat). Do not count on this literally, though, as the job may bescheduled on another computer or the local computer if : is in the list.
See also: -v-E eof-str
Set the end of file string to eof-str.
If the end of file string occurs as a line of input, the rest of the input is not read. If neither -E
nor -e is used, no end of file string is used.
--eof[=eof-str]
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This option is a synonym for the -E option.
Use -E instead, because it is POSIX compliant for xargs while this option is not. If eof-str isomitted, there is no end of file string. If neither -E nor -e is used, no end of file string is used.
--embedEmbed GNU parallel in a shell script.
If you need to distribute your script to someone who does not want to install GNU parallel you
can embed GNU parallel in your own shell script:
parallel --embed > new_script
After which you add your code at the end of new_script. This is tested on ash, bash, dash,ksh, sh, and zsh.
--env var
Copy exported environment variable var.
This will copy var to the environment that the command is run in. This is especially useful for
remote execution.
In Bash var can also be a Bash function - just remember to export -f the function.
The variable '_' is special. It will copy all exported environment variables except for the ones
mentioned in ~/.parallel/ignored_vars.
To copy the full environment (both exported and not exported variables, arrays, and functions)use env_parallel.
See also: --record-env --session --sshlogin command env_parallel--eta
Show the estimated number of seconds before finishing.
This forces GNU parallel to read all jobs before starting to find the number of jobs (unless you
use --total-jobs). GNU parallel normally only reads the next job to run.
The estimate is based on the runtime of finished jobs, so the first estimate will only be shown
when the first job has finished.
Implies --progress.
See also: --bar --progress --total-jobs--fast (alpha testing)Run jobs fast.
This disables a lot of functionality of GNU parallel to make jobs run as fast as possible: Thinkof it as the nitro racing car compared to the Volvo.
Useful for benchmarking and if you have 1000's of tiny jobs.
Compare:time parallel echo ::: {1..10} ::: {1..10} ::: {1..10}
time parallel --fast echo ::: {1..10} ::: {1..10} ::: {1..10}
time parallel --fast echo ::: {1..100} ::: {1..100} ::: {1..100}
Supported options: --group --keep-orderIf you need more options: File a bug.
--fg
Run command in foreground.
With --tmux and --tmuxpane GNU parallel will start tmux in the foreground.
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GNU Parallel
With --semaphore GNU parallel will run the command in the foreground (opposite --bg), andwait for completion of the command before exiting. Exit code will be that of the command.
See also: --bg man sem--fifoCreate a temporary fifo with content.
Normally --pipe and --pipe-part will give data to the program on stdin (standard input). With--fifo GNU parallel will create a temporary fifo with the name in {}, so you can do:parallel --pipe --fifo wc {}Beware: If the fifo is never opened for reading, the job will block forever:seq 1000000 | parallel --fifo echo This will block foreverseq 1000000 | parallel --fifo 'echo This will not block < {}'By using --fifo instead of --cat you may save I/O as --cat will write to a temporary file,whereas --fifo will not.
Implies --pipe unless --pipe-part is used.
See also: --cat --pipe --pipe-part--filter filter
Only run jobs where filter is true.
filter can contain replacement strings and Perl code. Example:
parallel --filter '{1}+{2}+{3} < 10' echo {1},{2},{3} \::: {1..10} ::: {3..8} ::: {3..10}
Outputs: 1,3,3 1,3,4 1,3,5 1,4,3 1,4,4 1,5,3 2,3,3 2,3,4 2,4,3 3,3,3
parallel --filter '{1} < {2}*{2}' echo {1},{2} \::: {1..10} ::: {1..3}
Outputs: 1,2 1,3 2,2 2,3 3,2 3,3 4,3 5,3 6,3 7,3 8,3parallel --filter '{choose_k}' --plus echo {1},{2},{3} \::: {1..5} ::: {1..5} ::: {1..5}
Outputs: 1,2,3 1,2,4 1,2,5 1,3,4 1,3,5 1,4,5 2,3,4 2,3,5 2,4,5 3,4,5See also: skip() --no-run-if-empty {choose_k}--filter-hosts
Remove down hosts.
For each remote host: check that login through ssh works. If not: do not use this host.
For performance reasons, this check is performed only at the start and every time--sshloginfile is changed. If an host goes down after the first check, it will go undetected until--sshloginfile is changed; --retries can be used to mitigate this.
Currently you can not put --filter-hosts in a profile, $PARALLEL, /etc/parallel/config or similar.
This is because GNU parallel uses GNU parallel to compute this, so you will get an infinite
loop. This will likely be fixed in a later release.
See also: --sshloginfile --sshlogin --retries--gnu
Behave like GNU parallel.
This option historically took precedence over --tollef. The --tollef option is now retired, andtherefore may not be used. --gnu is kept for compatibility, but does nothing.
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GNU Parallel--group
Group output.
Output from each job is grouped together and is only printed when the command is finished.
Stdout (standard output) first followed by stderr (standard error).
This takes in the order of 0.5ms CPU time per job and depends on the speed of your disk forlarger output.
--group is the default.
See also: --line-buffer --ungroup --tag--group-by val
Group input by value.
Combined with --pipe/--pipe-part --group-by groups lines with the same value into a record.
The value can be computed from the full line or from a single column.
val can be:column number
Use the value in the column numbered.
column nameTreat the first line as a header and use the value in the column
named.
(Not supported with --pipe-part).
perl expression
Run the perl expression and use $_ as the value.
column number perl expression
Put the value of the column put in $_, run the perl expression, and
use $_ as the value.
column name perl expression
Put the value of the column put in $_, run the perl expression, and
use $_ as the value.
(Not supported with --pipe-part).
Example:UserID, Consumption
123,
1
123,
2
12-3,
1
221,
3
221,
1
2/21,
5
If you want to group 123, 12-3, 221, and 2/21 into 4 records and pass one record at a time to
wc:
tail -n +2 table.csv | \parallel --pipe --colsep , --group-by 1 -kN1 wc
Make GNU parallel treat the first line as a header:
cat table.csv | \parallel --pipe --colsep , --header : --group-by 1 -kN1 wc

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GNU Parallel
Address column by column name:cat table.csv | \parallel --pipe --colsep , --header : --group-by UserID -kN1 wc
If 12-3 and 123 are really the same UserID, remove non-digits in UserID when grouping:cat table.csv | parallel --pipe --colsep , --header : \--group-by 'UserID s/\D//g' -kN1 wc
See also: SPREADING BLOCKS OF DATA --pipe --pipe-part --bin --shard --round-robin--help-hPrint a summary of the options to GNU parallel and exit.
--halt-on-error val--halt val
When should GNU parallel terminate?
In some situations it makes no sense to run all jobs. GNU parallel should simply stop as soon
as a condition is met.
val defaults to never, which runs all jobs no matter what.
val can also take on the form of when,why.
when can be 'now' which means kill all running jobs and halt immediately, or it can be 'soon'
which means wait for all running jobs to complete, but start no new jobs.
why can be 'fail=X', 'fail=Y%', 'success=X', 'success=Y%', 'done=X', or 'done=Y%' where X isthe number of jobs that has to fail, succeed, or be done before halting, and Y is thepercentage of jobs that has to fail, succeed, or be done before halting.
Example:--halt now,fail=1
exit when a job has failed. Kill running jobs.
--halt soon,fail=3
exit when 3 jobs have failed, but wait for runningjobs to complete.
--halt soon,fail=3%
exit when 3% of the jobs have failed, but wait for
running jobs to complete.
--halt now,success=1
exit when a job has succeeded. Kill running jobs.
--halt soon,success=3
exit when 3 jobs have succeeded, but wait for
running jobs to complete.
--halt now,success=3%
exit when 3% of the jobs have succeeded. Kill
running jobs.
--halt now,done=1
exit when a job has finished. Kill running jobs.
--halt soon,done=3
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GNU Parallelexit when 3 jobs have finished, but wait for runningjobs to complete.
--halt now,done=3%
exit when 3% of the jobs have finished. Kill runningjobs.
For backwards compatibility these also work:
0

never

1

soon,fail=1

2

now,fail=1-1
soon,success=1-2
now,success=1
1-99%
soon,fail=1-99%--header regexp
Use regexp as header.
For normal usage the matched header (typically the first line: --header '.*\n') will be split using--colsep (which will default to '\t') and column names can be used as replacement variables:{column name}, {column name/}, {column name//}, {column name/.}, {column name.},{=column name perl expression =}, ..
For --pipe the matched header will be prepended to each output.
--header : is an alias for --header '.*\n'.
If regexp is a number, it is a fixed number of lines.
--header 0 is special: It will make replacement strings for files given with --arg-file or ::::. It will
make {foo/bar} for the file foo/bar.
See also: --colsep --pipe --pipe-part --arg-file--hostgroups--hgrpEnable hostgroups on arguments.
If an argument contains '@' the string after '@' will be removed and treated as a list of
hostgroups on which this job is allowed to run. If there is no --sshlogin with a corresponding
group, the job will run on any hostgroup.
Example:parallel --hostgroups \--sshlogin @grp1/myserver1 -S @grp1+grp2/myserver2 \--sshlogin @grp3/myserver3 \echo ::: my_grp1_arg@grp1 arg_for_grp2@grp2 third@grp1+grp3
my_grp1_arg may be run on either myserver1 or myserver2, third may be run on either
myserver1 or myserver3, but arg_for_grp2 will only be run on myserver2.
See also: --sshlogin $PARALLEL_HOSTGROUPS $PARALLEL_ARGHOSTGROUPS-I replace-str
Use the replacement string replace-str instead of {}.
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GNU Parallel
See also: {}--replace [replace-str]-i [replace-str]
This option is deprecated; use -I instead.
This option is a synonym for -Ireplace-str if replace-str is specified, and for -I {} otherwise.
See also: {}--joblog logfile--jl logfile
Logfile for executed jobs.
Save a list of the executed jobs to logfile in the following TAB separated format: sequencenumber, sshlogin, start time as seconds since epoch, run time in seconds, bytes in files
transferred, bytes in files returned, exit status, signal, and command run.
For --pipe bytes transferred and bytes returned are number of input and output of bytes.
If logfile is prepended with '+' log lines will be appended to the logfile.
To convert the times into ISO-8601 strict do:
cat logfile | perl -a -F"\t" -ne \'chomp($F[2]=`date -d \@$F[2] +%FT%T`); print join("\t",@F)'If the host is long, you can use column -t to pretty print it:
cat joblog | column -t
See also: --resume --resume-failed--jobs num-j num--max-procs num-P numNumber of jobslots on each machine.
Run up to num jobs in parallel. Default is 100%.
num
Run up to num jobs in parallel.
0

Run as many as possible (this can take a while to determine).
Due to a bug -j 0 will also evaluate replacement strings twice up to the number ofjoblots:# This will not count from 1 but from number-of-jobslots
seq 10000 | parallel -j0
echo '{= $_ = $foo++; =}' |head# This will count from 1
seq 10000 | parallel -j100 echo '{= $_ = $foo++; =}' |
head

num%
Multiply the number of CPU threads by num percent. E.g. 100% means one job
per CPU thread on each machine.
+num
Add num to the number of CPU threads.
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GNU Parallel-num
Subtract num from the number of CPU threads.
expr
Evaluate expr. E.g. '12/2' to get 6, '+25%' gives the same as '125%', or complex
expressions like '+3*log(55)%' which means: multiply 3 by log(55), multiply thatby the number of CPU threads and divide by 100, add this to the number of CPU
threads.
An expression that evalutates to less that 1 is replaced with 1.
procfile
Read parameter from file.
Use the content of procfile as parameter for -j. E.g. procfile could contain thestring 100% or +2 or 10.
If procfile is changed when a job completes, procfile is read again and the newnumber of jobs is computed. If the number is lower than before, running jobs willbe allowed to finish but new jobs will not be started until the wanted number ofjobs has been reached. This makes it possible to change the number ofsimultaneous running jobs while GNU parallel is running.
If the evaluated number is less than 1 then 1 will be used.
If --semaphore is set, the default is 1 thus making a mutex.
See also: --use-cores-instead-of-threads --use-sockets-instead-of-threads--keep-order-k
Keep sequence of output same as the order of input.
Normally the output of a job will be printed as soon as the job completes. Try this to see thedifference:parallel -j4 sleep {}\; echo {} ::: 2 1 4 3parallel -j4 -k sleep {}\; echo {} ::: 2 1 4 3
If used with --onall or --nonall the output will grouped by sshlogin in sorted order.
--keep-order cannot keep the output order when used with --pipe --round-robin. Here it
instead means, that the jobslots will get the same blocks as input in the same order in every
run if the input is kept the same. Run each of these twice and compare:seq 10000000 | parallel --pipe --round-robin 'sleep 0.$RANDOM; wc'
seq 10000000 | parallel --pipe -k --round-robin 'sleep 0.$RANDOM;
wc'-k only affects the order in which the output is printed - not the order in which jobs are run.
See also: --group --line-buffer-L recsize
When used with --pipe: Read records of recsize.
When used otherwise: Use at most recsize nonblank input lines per command line. Trailingblanks cause an input line to be logically continued on the next input line.
-L 0 means read one line, but insert 0 arguments on the command line.
recsize can be postfixed with K, M, G, T, P, k, m, g, t, or p.
Implies -X unless -m, --xargs, or --pipe is set.
See also: UNIT PREFIX -N --max-lines --block -X -m --xargs --pipe
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GNU Parallel--max-lines [recsize]-l[recsize]
When used with --pipe: Read records of recsize lines.
When used otherwise: Synonym for the -L option. Unlike -L, the recsize argument is optional.
If recsize is not specified, it defaults to one. The -l option is deprecated since the POSIX
standard specifies -L instead.
-l 0 is an alias for -l 1.
Implies -X unless -m, --xargs, or --pipe is set.
See also: UNIT PREFIX -N --block -X -m --xargs --pipe--limit "command args"
Dynamic job limit.
Before starting a new job run command with args. The exit value of command determines
what GNU parallel will do:0

Below limit. Start another job.

1

Over limit. Start no jobs.

2

Way over limit. Kill the youngest job.

You can use any shell command. There are 3 predefined commands:"io n"
Limit for I/O. The amount of disk I/O will be computed as a value 0-100,
where 0 is no I/O and 100 is at least one disk is 100% saturated.
"load n"Similar to --load.
"mem n"Similar to --memfree.
See also: --memfree --load--latest-line--llPrint the lastest line. Each job gets a single line that is updated with the lastest output from thejob.
Example:slow_seq() {seq "$@" |perl -ne '$|=1; for(split//){ print; select($a,$a,$a,0.03);}'}export -f slow_seq
parallel --shuf -j99 --ll --tag --bar --color slow_seq {} :::{1..300}
See also: --line-buffer--line-buffer--lb
Buffer output on line basis.
--group will keep the output together for a whole job. --ungroup allows output to mixup withhalf a line coming from one job and half a line coming from another job. --line-buffer fits
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GNU Parallel
between these two: GNU parallel will print a full line, but will allow for mixing lines of different
jobs.
--line-buffer takes more CPU power than both --group and --ungroup, but can be much
faster than --group if the CPU is not the limiting factor.
Normally --line-buffer does not buffer on disk, and can thus process an infinite amount of
data, but it will buffer on disk when combined with: --keep-order, --results, --compress, and--files. This will make it as slow as --group and will limit output to the available disk space.
With --keep-order --line-buffer will output lines from the first job continuously while it isrunning, then lines from the second job while that is running. It will buffer full lines, but jobs will
not mix. Compare:parallel -j0 'echo [{};sleep {};echo {}]' ::: 1 3 2 4parallel -j0 --lb 'echo [{};sleep {};echo {}]' ::: 1 3 2 4parallel -j0 -k --lb 'echo [{};sleep {};echo {}]' ::: 1 3 2 4See also: --group --ungroup --keep-order --tag--link--xapply
Link input sources.
Read multiple input sources like the command xapply. If multiple input sources are given, one
argument will be read from each of the input sources. The arguments can be accessed in thecommand as {1} .. {n}, so {1} will be a line from the first input source, and {6} will refer to theline with the same line number from the 6th input source.
Compare these two:
parallel echo {1} {2} ::: 1 2 3 ::: a b cparallel --link echo {1} {2} ::: 1 2 3 ::: a b c
Arguments will be recycled if one input source has more arguments than the others:
parallel --link echo {1} {2} {3} \::: 1 2 ::: I II III ::: a b c d e f g
See also: --header :::+ ::::+--load max-load
Only start jobs if load is less than max-load.
Do not start new jobs on a given computer unless the number of running processes on thecomputer is less than max-load. max-load uses the same syntax as --jobs, so 100% for one
per CPU is a valid setting. Only difference is 0 which is interpreted as 0.01.
See also: --limit --jobs--controlmaster-M
Use ssh's ControlMaster to make ssh connections faster.
Useful if jobs run remote and are very fast to run. This is disabled for sshlogins that specify
their own ssh command.
See also: --ssh --sshlogin-mMultiple arguments.
Insert as many arguments as the command line length permits. If multiple jobs are being run
in parallel: distribute the arguments evenly among the jobs. Use -j1 or --xargs to avoid this.
If {} is not used the arguments will be appended to the line. If {} is used multiple times each {}Page 21

GNU Parallel
will be replaced with all the arguments.
Support for -m with --sshlogin is limited and may fail.
If in doubt use -X as that will most likely do what is needed.
See also: -X --xargs--match regexp (beta testing)
Match input source with regexp to set replacement fields.
With --match you can often avoid pre-processing your input with awk or similar to extract therelevant fields.
You can access each capture group i.e. the parenthesis in regexp '(...)' with a replacement
field. The replacement fields are named {m.n} where m is the input source and n is thecapture group number:parallel --match '(.*),(.*)_(.*)' echo {1.2} {1.3} {1.1} \::: Gold,Heart_of
parallel --match '(.*),' --match '([a-z]+)' echo {1.1}{2.1} \::: Milli,bar ::: 10ways
To reuse a --match simply use +n where n is the input source. E.g. +2 for the second:
parallel --match +2 --match '([A-Za-z]+)' echo {1.1} {2.1} \::: /Improbability/ ::: 10drive
To only set --match for input source 2, make a dummy --match for input source 1:parallel --match '' --match '([a-z]+)' echo {1} {2.1} \::: Telephone ::: 10sanitizer
See also: {n} --colsep--memfree size
Minimum memory free when starting another job.
The size can be postfixed with K, M, G, T, P, k, m, g, t, or p.
If the jobs take up very different amount of RAM, GNU parallel will only start as many as there
is memory for. If less than size bytes are free, no more jobs will be started. If less than 50%
size bytes are free, the youngest job will be killed (as per --term-seq), and put back on thequeue to be run later.
See also: UNIT PREFIX --term-seq --memsuspend--memsuspend size
Suspend jobs when there is less memory available.
If the available memory falls below 2 * size, GNU parallel will suspend some of the runningjobs. If the available memory falls below size, only one job will be running.
If a single job fits in the given size, all jobs will complete without running out of memory. If you
have swap available, you can usually lower size to around half the size of a single job - withthe slight risk of swapping a little.
Jobs will be resumed when more RAM is available - typically when the oldest job completes.
--memsuspend only works on local jobs because there is no obvious way to suspend remote
jobs.
size can be postfixed with K, M, G, T, P, k, m, g, t, or p.
See also: UNIT PREFIX --memfree--minversion version
Print the version GNU parallel and exit.
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GNU Parallel
If the current version of GNU parallel is less than version the exit code is 255. Otherwise it is0.
This is useful for scripts that depend on features only available from a certain version of GNU
parallel:parallel --minversion 20170422 &&echo halt done=50% supported from version 20170422 &&parallel --halt now,done=50% echo ::: {1..100}
See also: --version--max-args max-args-n max-args
Use at most max-args arguments per command line.
Fewer than max-args arguments will be used if the size (see the -s option) is exceeded,
unless the -x option is given, in which case GNU parallel will exit.
-n 0 means read one argument, but insert 0 arguments on the command line.
max-args can be postfixed with K, M, G, T, P, k, m, g, t, or p (see UNIT PREFIX).
Implies -X unless -m is set.
See also: -X -m --xargs --max-replace-args--max-replace-args max-args-N max-args
Use at most max-args arguments per command line.
Like -n but also makes replacement strings {1} .. {max-args} that represents argument 1 ..
max-args. If too few args the {n} will be empty.
-N 0 means read one argument, but insert 0 arguments on the command line.
This will set the owner of the homedir to the user:
tr ':' '\n' < /etc/passwd | parallel -N7 chown {1} {6}Implies -X unless -m or --pipe is set.
max-args can be postfixed with K, M, G, T, P, k, m, g, t, or p.
When used with --pipe -N is the number of records to read. This is somewhat slower than--block.
See also: UNIT PREFIX --pipe --block -m -X --max-args--nonall--onall with no arguments.
Run the command on all computers given with --sshlogin but take no arguments. GNU
parallel will log into --jobs number of computers in parallel and run the job on the computer. -jadjusts how many computers to log into in parallel.
This is useful for running the same command (e.g. uptime) on a list of servers.
See also: --onall --sshlogin--onall
Run all the jobs on all computers given with --sshlogin.
GNU parallel will log into --jobs number of computers in parallel and run one job at a time on
the computer. The order of the jobs will not be changed, but some computers may finish
before others.
When using --group the output will be grouped by each server, so all the output from one
server will be grouped together.
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GNU Parallel--joblog will contain an entry for each job on each server, so there will be several job
sequence 1.
See also: --nonall --sshlogin--open-tty-oOpen terminal tty.
Similar to --tty but does not set --jobs or --ungroup.
See also: --tty--output-as-files--outputasfiles--files--files0
Save output to files.
Instead of printing the output to stdout (standard output) the output of each job is saved in afile and the filename is then printed.
--files0 uses NUL (\0) instead of newline (\n) as separator.
See also: --results--pipe--spreadstdin
Spread input to jobs on stdin (standard input).
Read a block of data from stdin (standard input) and give one block of data as input to one
job.
The block size is determined by --block (default: 1M).
Except for the first and last record GNU parallel only passes full records to the job. The
strings --recstart and --recend determine where a record starts and ends: The border
between two records is defined as --recend immediately followed by --recstart. GNU parallel
splits exactly after --recend and before --recstart. The block will have the last partial record
removed before the block is passed on to the job. The partial record will be prepended to next
block.
You can limit the number of records to be passed with -N, and set the record size with -L.
--pipe maxes out at around 1 GB/s input, and 100 MB/s output. If performance is importantuse --pipe-part.
--fifo and --cat will give stdin (standard input) on a fifo or a temporary file.
If data is arriving slowly, you can use --block-timeout to finish reading a block early.
The data can be spread between the jobs in specific ways using --round-robin, --bin, --shard, --group-by. See the section: SPREADING BLOCKS OF DATA
See also: --block --block-timeout --recstart --recend --fifo --cat --pipe-part -N -L--round-robin--pipe-part
Pipe parts of a physical file.
--pipe-part works similar to --pipe, but is much faster. 5 GB/s can easily be delivered.
--pipe-part has a few limitations:
The file must be a normal file or a block device (technically it must be seekable) andmust be given using --arg-file or ::::. The file cannot be a pipe, a fifo, or a stream as
they are not seekable.
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GNU Parallel
If using a block device with lot of NUL bytes, remember to set --recend ''.
Record counting (-N) and line counting (-L/-l) do not work. Instead use --recstart and--recend to determine where records end.
See also: --pipe --recstart --recend --arg-file ::::--plainIgnore --profile, $PARALLEL, and ~/.parallel/config.
Ignore any --profile, $PARALLEL, and ~/.parallel/config to get full control on the commandline (used by GNU parallel internally when called with --sshlogin).
See also: --profile--plus
Add more replacement strings.
Activate additional replacement strings: {+/} {+.} {+..} {+...} {..} {...} {/..} {/...} {##}. The idea
being that '{+foo}' matches the opposite of '{foo}' so that:{} = {+/}/{/} = {.}.{+.} = {+/}/{/.}.{+.} = {..}.{+..} = {+/}/{/..}.{+..} = {...}.{+...} = {+/}/{/...}.{+...}{##} is the total number of jobs to be run. It is incompatible with -X/-m/--xargs.
{0%} zero-padded jobslot.
{0#} zero-padded sequence number.
{slot-1} jobslot - 1 (i.e. counting from 0).
{seq-1} sequence number - 1 (i.e. counting from 0).
{choose_k} is inspired by n choose k: Given a list of n elements, choose k. k is the number of
input sources and n is the number of arguments in an input source. The content of the input
sources must be the same and the arguments must be unique.
{uniq} skips jobs where values from two input sources are the same.
Shorthands for variables:{slot}{sshlogin}{host}{agrp}{hgrp}$PARALLEL_JOBSLOT (see {%})$PARALLEL_SSHLOGIN$PARALLEL_SSHHOST$PARALLEL_ARGHOSTGROUPS$PARALLEL_HOSTGROUPS

The following dynamic replacement strings are also activated. They are inspired by bash's
parameter expansion:{:-str}str if the value is empty{:num}
remove the first num characters{:pos:len}substring from position pos length len{#regexp}
remove prefix regexp (non-greedy){##regexp}
remove prefix regexp (greedy){%regexp}
remove postfix regexp (non-greedy){%%regexp}
remove postfix regexp (greedy){/regexp/str} replace one regexp with str{//regexp/str} replace every regexp with str{^str}
uppercase str if found at the start{^^str}uppercase str{,str}
lowercase str if found at the start{,,str}lowercase str
See also: --rpl {}--process-slot-var varname
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GNU Parallel
Set the environment variable varname to the jobslot number-1.
seq 10 | parallel --process-slot-var=name echo '$name' {}--progressShow progress of computations.
List the computers involved in the task with number of CPUs detected and the max number ofjobs to run. After that show progress for each computer: number of running jobs, number ofcompleted jobs, and percentage of all jobs done by this computer. The percentage will only beavailable after all jobs have been scheduled as GNU parallel only read the next job when
ready to schedule it - this is to avoid wasting time and memory by reading everything at
startup.
By sending GNU parallel SIGUSR2 you can toggle turning on/off --progress on a runningGNU parallel process.
See also: --eta --bar--max-line-length-allowed
Print maximal command line length.
Print the maximal number of characters allowed on the command line and exit (used by GNU
parallel itself to determine the line length on remote computers).
See also: --show-limits--number-of-cpus (obsolete)
Print the number of physical CPU cores and exit.
--number-of-cores
Print the number of physical CPU cores and exit (used by GNU parallel itself to determine thenumber of physical CPU cores on remote computers).
See also: --number-of-sockets --number-of-threads --use-cores-instead-of-threads --jobs--number-of-sockets
Print the number of filled CPU sockets and exit (used by GNU parallel itself to determine thenumber of filled CPU sockets on remote computers).
See also: --number-of-cores --number-of-threads --use-sockets-instead-of-threads --jobs--number-of-threads
Print the number of hyperthreaded CPU cores and exit (used by GNU parallel itself todetermine the number of hyperthreaded CPU cores on remote computers).
See also: --number-of-cores --number-of-sockets --jobs--no-keep-order
Overrides an earlier --keep-order (e.g. if set in ~/.parallel/config).
--nice niceness
Run the command at this niceness.
By default GNU parallel will run jobs at the same nice level as GNU parallel is started - bothon the local machine and remote servers, so you are unlikely to ever use this option.
Setting --nice will override this nice level. If the nice level is smaller than the current nice level,
it will only affect remote jobs (e.g. if current level is 10 then --nice 5 will cause local jobs to be
run at level 10, but remote jobs run at nice level 5).
--interactive-p
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GNU Parallel
Ask user before running a job.
Prompt the user about whether to run each command line and read a line from the terminal.
Only run the command line if the response starts with 'y' or 'Y'. Implies -t.
--_parset type,varname
Used internally by parset.
Generate shell code to be eval'ed which will set the variable(s) varname. type can be 'assoc'
for associative array or 'var' for normal variables.
The only supported use is as part of parset.
--parens parensstring
Use parensstring instead of {==}.
Define start and end parenthesis for {=perl expression=}. The left and the right parenthesis
can be multiple characters and are assumed to be the same length. The default is {==} giving{= as the start parenthesis and =} as the end parenthesis.
Another useful setting is ,,,, which would make both parenthesis ,,:parallel --parens ,,,, echo foo is ,,s/I/O/g,, ::: FII
See also: --rpl {=perl expression=}--profile profilename-J profilename
Use profile profilename for options.
This is useful if you want to have multiple profiles. You could have one profile for running jobs
in parallel on the local computer and a different profile for running jobs on remote computers.
profilename corresponds to the file ~/.parallel/profilename.
You can give multiple profiles by repeating --profile. If parts of the profiles conflict, the laterones will be used.
Default: ~/.parallel/config
See also: PROFILE FILES--quote-q
Quote command.
If your command contains special characters that should not be interpreted by the shell (e.g. ;\ | *), use --quote to escape these. The command must be a simple command (see man bash
) without redirections and without variable assignments.
Most people will not need this. Quoting is disabled by default.
See also: QUOTING command --shell-quote uq() Q()--no-run-if-empty-r
Do not run empty input.
If the stdin (standard input) only contains whitespace, do not run the command.
If used with --pipe this is slow.
See also: command --pipe --interactive--noswap
Do not start job is computer is swapping.
Do not start new jobs on a given computer if there is both swap-in and swap-out activity.
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GNU Parallel
The swap activity is only sampled every 10 seconds as the sampling takes 1 second to do.
Swap activity is computed as (swap-in)*(swap-out) which in practice is a good value:
swapping out is not a problem, swapping in is not a problem, but both swapping in and out
usually indicates a problem.
--memfree and --memsuspend may give better results, so try using those first.
See also: --memfree --memsuspend--record-env
Record exported environment.
Record current exported environment variables in ~/.parallel/ignored_vars. This will ignore
variables currently set when using --env _. So you should set the variables/fuctions, you want
to use after running --record-env.
See also: --env --session env_parallel--recstart startstring--recend endstring
Split record between endstring and startstring.
If --recstart is given startstring will be used to split at record start.
If --recend is given endstring will be used to split at record end.
If both --recstart and --recend are given the combined string endstringstartstring will have tomatch to find a split position. This is useful if either startstring or endstring match in the middle
of a record.
If neither --recstart nor --recend are given, then --recend defaults to '\n'. To have no record
separator (e.g. for binary files) use --recend "".
--recstart and --recend are used with --pipe.
Use --regexp to interpret --recstart and --recend as regular expressions. This is slow,
however.
Use --remove-rec-sep to remove --recstart and --recend before passing the block to the job.
See also: --pipe --regexp --remove-rec-sep--regexp
Use --regexp to interpret --recstart and --recend as regular expressions. This is slow,
however.
See also: --pipe --regexp --remove-rec-sep --recstart --recend--remove-rec-sep--removerecsep--rrs
Remove record separator.
Remove the text matched by --recstart and --recend before piping it to the command.
Only used with --pipe/--pipe-part.
See also: --pipe --regexp --pipe-part --recstart --recend--results name--res name
Save the output into files.
Simple string output dir
If name does not contain replacement strings and does not end in .csv/.tsv, the output will be
stored in a directory tree rooted at name. Within this directory tree, each command will result
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GNU Parallelin three files: name/<ARGS>/stdout and name/<ARGS>/stderr, name/<ARGS>/seq, where<ARGS> is a sequence of directories representing the header of the input source (if using--header :) or the number of the input source and corresponding values.
E.g:parallel --header : --results foo echo {a} {b} \::: a I II ::: b III IIII
will generate the files:
foo/a/II/b/III/seq
foo/a/II/b/III/stderr
foo/a/II/b/III/stdout
foo/a/II/b/IIII/seq
foo/a/II/b/IIII/stderr
foo/a/II/b/IIII/stdout
foo/a/I/b/III/seq
foo/a/I/b/III/stderr
foo/a/I/b/III/stdout
foo/a/I/b/IIII/seq
foo/a/I/b/IIII/stderr
foo/a/I/b/IIII/stdout
andparallel --results foo echo {1} {2} ::: I II ::: III IIII
will generate the files:
foo/1/II/2/III/seq
foo/1/II/2/III/stderr
foo/1/II/2/III/stdout
foo/1/II/2/IIII/seq
foo/1/II/2/IIII/stderr
foo/1/II/2/IIII/stdout
foo/1/I/2/III/seq
foo/1/I/2/III/stderr
foo/1/I/2/III/stdout
foo/1/I/2/IIII/seq
foo/1/I/2/IIII/stderr
foo/1/I/2/IIII/stdout
CSV file output
If name ends in .csv/.tsv the output will be a CSV-file named name.
.csv gives a comma separated value file. .tsv gives a TAB separated value file.
-.csv/-.tsv are special: It will give the file on stdout (standard output).
JSON file output
If name ends in .json the output will be a JSON-file named name.
-.json is special: It will give the file on stdout (standard output).
Replacement string output fileIf name contains a replacement string and the replaced result does not end in /, then thestandard output will be stored in a file named by this result. Standard error will be stored in thesame file name with '.err' added, and the sequence number will be stored in the same filename with '.seq' added.
E.g.
parallel --results my_{} echo ::: foo bar baz
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GNU Parallel
will generate the files:
my_barmy_bar.err
my_bar.seq
my_bazmy_baz.err
my_baz.seq
my_foomy_foo.err
my_foo.seq
Replacement string output dir
If name contains a replacement string and the replaced result ends in /, then output files will
be stored in the resulting dir.
E.g.
parallel --results my_{}/ echo ::: foo bar baz
will generate the files:
my_bar/seq
my_bar/stderr
my_bar/stdout
my_baz/seq
my_baz/stderr
my_baz/stdout
my_foo/seq
my_foo/stderr
my_foo/stdout
See also: --output-as-files --tag --header --joblog--resume
Resumes from the last unfinished job.
By reading --joblog or the --results dir GNU parallel will figure out the last unfinished job andcontinue from there. As GNU parallel only looks at the sequence numbers in --joblog thenthe input, the command, and --joblog all have to remain unchanged; otherwise GNU parallel
may run wrong commands.
See also: --joblog --results --resume-failed --retries--resume-failed
Retry all failed and resume from the last unfinished job.
By reading --joblog GNU parallel will figure out the failed jobs and run those again. After that
it will resume last unfinished job and continue from there. As GNU parallel only looks at thesequence numbers in --joblog then the input, the command, and --joblog all have to remainunchanged; otherwise GNU parallel may run wrong commands.
See also: --joblog --resume --retry-failed --retries--retry-failed
Retry all failed jobs in joblog.
By reading --joblog GNU parallel will figure out the failed jobs and run those again.
--retry-failed ignores the command and arguments on the command line: It only looks at thejoblog.
Differences between --resume, --resume-failed, --retry-failed
In this example exit {= $_%=2 =} will cause every other job to fail.
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GNU Paralleltimeout -k 1 4 parallel --joblog log -j10 \'sleep {}; exit {= $_%=2 =}' ::: {10..1}
4 jobs completed. 2 failed:
Seq [...] Exitval Signal Command
10 [...] 1 0 sleep 1; exit 1
9 [...] 0 0 sleep 2; exit 0
8 [...] 1 0 sleep 3; exit 1
7 [...] 0 0 sleep 4; exit 0--resume does not care about the Exitval, but only looks at Seq. If the Seq is run, it will not be
run again. So if needed, you can change the command for the seqs not run yet:parallel --resume --joblog log -j10 \'sleep .{}; exit {= $_%=2 =}' ::: {10..1}
Seq [...] Exitval Signal Command[... as above ...]
1 [...] 0 0 sleep .10; exit 0
6 [...] 1 0 sleep .5; exit 1
5 [...] 0 0 sleep .6; exit 0
4 [...] 1 0 sleep .7; exit 1
3 [...] 0 0 sleep .8; exit 0
2 [...] 1 0 sleep .9; exit 1--resume-failed cares about the Exitval, but also only looks at Seq to figure out which
commands to run. Again this means you can change the command, but not the arguments. It
will run the failed seqs and the seqs not yet run:parallel --resume-failed --joblog log -j10 \'echo {};sleep .{}; exit {= $_%=3 =}' ::: {10..1}
Seq [...] Exitval Signal Command[... as above ...]
10 [...] 1 0 echo 1;sleep .1; exit 1
8 [...] 0 0 echo 3;sleep .3; exit 0
6 [...] 2 0 echo 5;sleep .5; exit 2
4 [...] 1 0 echo 7;sleep .7; exit 1
2 [...] 0 0 echo 9;sleep .9; exit 0--retry-failed cares about the Exitval, but takes the command from the joblog. It ignores any
arguments or commands given on the command line:
parallel --retry-failed --joblog log -j10 this part is ignored
Seq [...] Exitval Signal Command[... as above ...]
10 [...] 1 0 echo 1;sleep .1; exit 1
6 [...] 2 0 echo 5;sleep .5; exit 2
4 [...] 1 0 echo 7;sleep .7; exit 1
See also: --joblog --resume --resume-failed --retries--retries n
Try failing jobs n times.
If a job fails, retry it on another computer on which it has not failed. Do this n times. If there arefewer than n computers in --sshlogin GNU parallel will re-use all the computers. This isuseful if some jobs fail for no apparent reason (such as network failure).
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GNU Parallel
n=0 means infinite.
See also: --term-seq --sshlogin--return filename
Transfer files from remote computers.
--return is used with --sshlogin when the arguments are files on the remote computers.
When processing is done the file filename will be transferred from the remote computer using
rsync and will be put relative to the default login dir. E.g.
echo foo/bar.txt | parallel --return {.}.out \--sshlogin server.example.com touch {.}.out
This will transfer the file $HOME/foo/bar.out from the computer server.example.com to the file
foo/bar.out after running touch foo/bar.out on server.example.com.
parallel -S server --trc out/./{}.out touch {}.out ::: in/file
This will transfer the file in/file.out from the computer server.example.com to the files
out/in/file.out after running touch in/file.out on server.
echo /tmp/foo/bar.txt | parallel --return {.}.out \--sshlogin server.example.com touch {.}.out
This will transfer the file /tmp/foo/bar.out from the computer server.example.com to the file/tmp/foo/bar.out after running touch /tmp/foo/bar.out on server.example.com.
Multiple files can be transferred by repeating the option multiple times:
echo /tmp/foo/bar.txt | parallel \--sshlogin server.example.com \--return {.}.out --return {.}.out2 touch {.}.out {.}.out2--return is ignored when used with --sshlogin : or when not used with --sshlogin.
For details on transferring see --transferfile.
See also: --transfer --transferfile --sshlogin --cleanup --workdir--round-robin--roundDistribute chunks of standard input in a round robin fashion.
Normally --pipe will give a single block to each instance of the command. With --round-robin
all blocks will at random be written to commands already running. This is useful if thecommand takes a long time to initialize.
With --keep-order and --round-robin the jobslots will get the same blocks as input in thesame order in every run if the input is kept the same. See details under --keep-order.
--round-robin implies --pipe, except if --pipe-part is given.
See the section: SPREADING BLOCKS OF DATA.
See also: --bin --group-by --shard--rpl 'tag perl expression'
Define replacement string.
Use tag as a replacement string for perl expression. This makes it possible to define your own
replacement strings. GNU parallel's 7 replacement strings are implemented as:--rpl '{} '--rpl '{#} 1 $_=$job->seq()'--rpl '{%} 1 $_=$job->slot()'--rpl '{/} s:.*/::'
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GNU Parallel--rpl '{//} $Global::use{"File::Basename"} ||=eval "use File::Basename; 1;"; $_ = dirname($_);'--rpl '{/.} s:.*/::; s:\.[^/.]+$::;'--rpl '{.} s:\.[^/.]+$::'The --plus replacement strings are implemented as:--rpl '{+/} s:/[^/]*$:: || s:.*$::'--rpl '{+.} s:.*\.:: || s:.*$::'--rpl '{+..} s:.*\.([^/.]+\.[^/.]+)$:$1: || s:.*$::'--rpl '{+...} s:.*\.([^/.]+\.[^/.]+\.[^/.]+)$:$1: || s:.*$::'--rpl '{..} s:\.[^/.]+\.[^/.]+$::'--rpl '{...} s:\.[^/.]+\.[^/.]+\.[^/.]+$::'--rpl '{/..} s:.*/::; s:\.[^/.]+\.[^/.]+$::'--rpl '{/...} s:.*/::; s:\.[^/.]+\.[^/.]+\.[^/.]+$::'--rpl '{choose_k}
for $t (2..$#arg){ if($arg[$t-1] ge $arg[$t]) { skip() } }'--rpl '{##} 1 $_=total_jobs()'--rpl '{0%} 1 $f=1+int((log($Global::max_jobs_running||1)/log(10))); $_=sprintf("%0${f}d",slot())'--rpl '{0#} 1 $f=1+int((log(total_jobs())/log(10)));$_=sprintf("%0${f}d",seq())'--rpl '{seq(.*?)} $_=eval q{$job->seq()}.qq{$$1}'--rpl '{slot(.*?)} $_=eval q{$job->slot()}.qq{$$1}'--rpl '{:-([^}]+?)} $_ ||= $$1'--rpl '{:(\d+?)} substr($_,0,$$1) = ""'--rpl '{:(\d+?):(\d+?)} $_ = substr($_,$$1,$$2);'--rpl '{#([^#}][^}]*?)} $nongreedy=::make_regexp_ungreedy($$1);
s/^$nongreedy(.*)/$1/;'--rpl '{##([^#}][^}]*?)} s/^$$1//;'--rpl '{%([^}]+?)} $nongreedy=::make_regexp_ungreedy($$1);
s/(.*)$nongreedy$/$1/;'--rpl '{%%([^}]+?)} s/$$1$//;'--rpl '{/([^}]+?)/([^}]*?)} s/$$1/$$2/;'--rpl '{^([^}]+?)} s/^($$1)/uc($1)/e;'--rpl '{^^([^}]+?)} s/($$1)/uc($1)/eg;'--rpl '{,([^}]+?)} s/^($$1)/lc($1)/e;'--rpl '{,,([^}]+?)} s/($$1)/lc($1)/eg;'--rpl '{slot} 1 $_="\${PARALLEL_JOBSLOT}";uq()'--rpl '{host} 1 $_="\${PARALLEL_SSHHOST}";uq()'--rpl '{sshlogin} 1 $_="\${PARALLEL_SSHLOGIN}";uq()'--rpl '{hgrp} 1 $_="\${PARALLEL_HOSTGROUPS}";uq()'--rpl '{agrp} 1 $_="\${PARALLEL_ARGHOSTGROUPS}";uq()'
If the user defined replacement string starts with '{' it can also be used as a positional
replacement string (like {2.}).
It is recommended to only change $_ but you have full access to all of GNU parallel's internalfunctions and data structures.
Here are a few examples:Is the job sequence even or odd?
--rpl '{odd} $_ = seq() % 2 ? "odd" : "even"'
Pad job sequence with leading zeros to get equal width--rpl '{0#} $f=1+int("".(log(total_jobs())/log(10)));$_=sprintf("%0${f}d",seq())'
Job sequence counting from 0
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GNU Parallel--rpl '{#0} $_ = seq() - 1'
Job slot counting from 2--rpl '{%1} $_ = slot() + 1'
Remove all extensions--rpl '{:} s:(\.[^/]+)*$::'
You can have dynamic replacement strings by including parenthesis in the replacement string
and adding a regular expression between the parenthesis. The matching string will be inserted
as $$1:
parallel --rpl '{%(.*?)} s/$$1//' echo {%.tar.gz} ::: my.tar.gz
parallel --rpl '{:+(.+?)} s:$$1(\.[^/]+)*$::' \echo {:+_file} ::: my_file.tar.gz
parallel -n3 --rpl '{/:+(.*?)} s:.*/(.*)$$1(\.[^/]+)*$:$1:' \echo job {#}: {2} {2.} {3/:+_1} ::: a/b.c c/d.e f/g_1.h.i
You can even use multiple matches:parallel --rpl '{/(.+?)/(.*?)} s/$$1/$$2/;'
echo {/replacethis/withthis} {/b/C} ::: a_replacethis_b
parallel --rpl '{(.*?)/(.*?)} $_="$$2$_$$1"' \echo {swap/these} ::: -middleSee also: {=perl expression=} --parens--rsync-opts options
Options to pass on to rsync.
Setting --rsync-opts takes precedence over setting the environment variable$PARALLEL_RSYNC_OPTS.
--max-chars max-chars-s max-chars
Limit length of command.
Use at most max-chars characters per command line, including the command andinitial-arguments and the terminating nulls at the ends of the argument strings. The largest
allowed value is system-dependent, and is calculated as the argument length limit for exec,
less the size of your environment. The default value is the maximum.
max-chars can be postfixed with K, M, G, T, P, k, m, g, t, or p (see UNIT PREFIX).
Implies -X unless -m or --xargs is set.
See also: -X -m --xargs --max-line-length-allowed --show-limits--show-limits
Display limits given by the operating system.
Display the limits on the command-line length which are imposed by the operating system andthe -s option. Pipe the input from /dev/null (and perhaps specify --no-run-if-empty) if you don't
want GNU parallel to do anything.
See also: --max-chars --max-line-length-allowed --version--semaphore
Work as a counting semaphore.
--semaphore will cause GNU parallel to start command in the background. When the numberof jobs given by --jobs is reached, GNU parallel will wait for one of these to complete before
starting another command.
--semaphore implies --bg unless --fg is specified.
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GNU Parallel
The command sem is an alias for parallel --semaphore.
See also: man sem --bg --fg --semaphore-name --semaphore-timeout --wait--semaphore-name name--id name
Use name as the name of the semaphore.
The default is the name of the controlling tty (output from tty).
The default normally works as expected when used interactively, but when used in a script
name should be set. $$ or my_task_name are often a good value.
The semaphore is stored in ~/.parallel/semaphores/
Implies --semaphore.
See also: man sem --semaphore--semaphore-timeout secs--st secs
If secs > 0: If the semaphore is not released within secs seconds, take it anyway.
If secs < 0: If the semaphore is not released within secs seconds, exit.
secs is in seconds, but can be postfixed with s, m, h, or d (see the section TIME POSTFIXES).
Implies --semaphore.
See also: man sem--seqreplace replace-str
Use the replacement string replace-str instead of {#} for job sequence number.
See also: {#}--session
Record names in current environment in $PARALLEL_IGNORED_NAMES and exit.
Only used with env_parallel. Aliases, functions, and variables with names in$PARALLEL_IGNORED_NAMES will not be copied. So you should set variables/function you
want copied after running --session.
It is similar to --record-env, but only for this session.
Only supported in Ash, Bash, Dash, Ksh, Sh, and Zsh.
See also: --env --record-env env_parallel--shard shardexpr
Use shardexpr as shard key and shard input to the jobs.
shardexpr is [column number|column name] [perlexpression] e.g.:3Address
3 $_%=100
Address s/\d//g
Each input line is split using --colsep. The string of the column is put into $_, the perl
expression is executed, the resulting string is hashed so that all lines of a given value is given
to the same job slot.
This is similar to sharding in databases.
The performance is in the order of 100K rows per second. Faster if the shardcol is small (<10),
slower if it is big (>100).
--shard requires --pipe and a fixed numeric value for --jobs.
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GNU Parallel
See the section: SPREADING BLOCKS OF DATA.
See also: --bin --group-by --round-robin--shebang--hashbang
GNU parallel can be called as a shebang (#!) command as the first line of a script. The
content of the file will be treated as inputsource.
Like this:#!/usr/bin/parallel --shebang -r wget
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/parallel/parallel-20120822.tar.bz2
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/parallel/parallel-20130822.tar.bz2
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/parallel/parallel-20140822.tar.bz2--shebang must be set as the first option.
On FreeBSD env is needed:#!/usr/bin/env -S parallel --shebang -r wget
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/parallel/parallel-20120822.tar.bz2
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/parallel/parallel-20130822.tar.bz2
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/parallel/parallel-20140822.tar.bz2
There are many limitations of shebang (#!) depending on your operating system. See details
on https://www.in-ulm.de/~mascheck/various/shebang/
See also: --shebang-wrap--shebang-wrap
GNU parallel can parallelize scripts by wrapping the shebang line. If the program can be runlike this:cat arguments | parallel the_program
then the script can be changed to:#!/usr/bin/parallel --shebang-wrap /original/parser --options
E.g.
#!/usr/bin/parallel --shebang-wrap /usr/bin/python
If the program can be run like this:cat data | parallel --pipe the_program
then the script can be changed to:#!/usr/bin/parallel --shebang-wrap --pipe /orig/parser --opts
E.g.
#!/usr/bin/parallel --shebang-wrap --pipe /usr/bin/perl -w--shebang-wrap must be set as the first option.
See also: --shebang--shell-completion shell
Generate shell completion code for interactive shells.
Supported shells: bash zsh.
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GNU Parallel
Use auto as shell to automatically detect running shell.
Activate the completion code with:zsh% eval "$(parallel --shell-completion auto)"
bash$ eval "$(parallel --shell-completion auto)"
Or put this `/usr/share/zsh/site-functions/_parallel`, then `compinit` to generate`~/.zcompdump`:#compdef parallel(( $+functions[_comp_parallel] )) ||eval "$(parallel --shell-completion auto)" &&_comp_parallel--shell-quote
Does not run the command but quotes it. Useful for making quoted composed commands for
GNU parallel.
Multiple --shell-quote with quote the string multiple times, so parallel --shell-quote | parallel--shell-quote can be written as parallel --shell-quote --shell-quote.
See also: --quote--shuf
Shuffle jobs.
When having multiple input sources it is hard to randomize jobs. --shuf will generate all jobs,
and shuffle them before running them. This is useful to get a quick preview of the results
before running the full batch.
Combined with --halt soon,done=1% you can run a random 1% sample of all jobs:
parallel --shuf --halt soon,done=1% echo ::: {1..100} ::: {1..100}
See also: --halt--skip-first-line
Do not use the first line of input (used by GNU parallel itself when called with --shebang).
--sql DBURL (obsolete)
Use --sql-master instead.
--sql-master DBURL
Submit jobs via SQL server. DBURL must point to a table, which will contain the same
information as --joblog, the values from the input sources (stored in columns V1 .. Vn), andthe output (stored in columns Stdout and Stderr).
If DBURL is prepended with '+' GNU parallel assumes the table is already made with thecorrect columns and appends the jobs to it.
If DBURL is not prepended with '+' the table will be dropped and created with the correct
amount of V-columns unless--sqlmaster does not run any jobs, but it creates the values for the jobs to be run. One ormore --sqlworker must be run to actually execute the jobs.
If --wait is set, GNU parallel will wait for the jobs to complete.
The format of a DBURL is:[sql:]vendor://[[user][:pwd]@][host][:port]/[db]/table
E.g.
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GNU Parallel
sql:mysql://hr:hr@localhost:3306/hrdb/jobs
mysql://scott:tiger@my.example.com/pardb/paralleljobs
sql:oracle://scott:tiger@ora.example.com/xe/parjob
postgresql://scott:tiger@pg.example.com/pgdb/parjob
pg:///parjob
sqlite3:///%2Ftmp%2Fpardb.sqlite/parjob
csv:///%2Ftmp%2Fpardb/parjob
Notice how / in the path of sqlite and CVS must be encoded as %2F. Except the last / in CSV
which must be a /.
It can also be an alias from ~/.sql/aliases::myalias mysql:///mydb/paralleljobs
See also: --sql-and-worker --sql-worker --joblog--sql-and-worker DBURL
Shorthand for: --sql-master DBURL --sql-worker DBURL.
See also: --sql-master --sql-worker--sql-worker DBURL
Execute jobs via SQL server. Read the input sources variables from the table pointed to by
DBURL. The command on the command line should be the same as given by --sqlmaster.
If you have more than one --sqlworker jobs may be run more than once.
If --sqlworker runs on the local machine, the hostname in the SQL table will not be ':' butinstead the hostname of the machine.
See also: --sql-master --sql-and-worker--ssh sshcommand
GNU parallel defaults to using ssh for remote access. This can be overridden with --ssh. It
can also be set on a per server basis with --sshlogin.
See also: --sshlogin--ssh-delay duration
Delay starting next ssh by duration.
GNU parallel will not start another ssh for the next duration.
duration is in seconds, but can be postfixed with s, m, h, or d.
See also: TIME POSTFIXES --sshlogin --delay--sshlogin [@hostgroups/][ncpus/][[user][:[password]]@]host[:port][,...]--sshlogin @hostgroup-S [@hostgroups/][ncpus/][ssh command][[user][:[password]]@]host[:port][,...]-S @hostgroup
Distribute jobs to remote computers.
The jobs will be run on a list of remote computers.
@hostgroups/
One or more groups this sshlogin belongs to. Multiple groups are
separated by '+'. The sshlogin will always be added to ahostgroup named the same as sshlogin.
If only the @hostgroup is given, only the sshlogins in that
hostgroup will be used. Multiple @hostgroup can be given.
See --hostgroup.
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GNU Parallel
Examples: @prod/, @dev+remote/ncpus/
Force number of CPU threads.
GNU parallel will determine the number of CPUs on the remotecomputers and run the number of jobs as specified by -j. If thenumber ncpus is given GNU parallel will use this number for
number of CPU threads on the host. Normally ncpus will not beneeded.
Examples: 4/, 12/
ssh command
The ssh command to use. The ssh command must be followed bya space.
Example: /usr/bin/lsh -z , autossh -C
user
User name to log in as. Defaults to the current user name.
Examples: alice, bob:password
Use password for authentication (using sshpass). password
cannot contain space. If password is omitted, GNU parallel will
use $SSHPASS. If : is omitted use ssh's default authentication. In
this case login must not require a password (ssh-agent andssh-copy-id may help with that).
Examples: :mypassword, :host
Hostname or IP address of server. (This is what you will use themost).
Examples: server01, 10.1.2.3, [2001:470:142:4::a],
2001:470:142:5::116.
Ranges of hostnames can be given in [] like this: server[1,3,8-10](for server1, server3, server8, server9, server10) or
server[001,003,008-010] (for server001, server003, server008,
server009, server010). With Bash's brace expansion you can do:-S{dev,prod}[001-100] to get -Sdev[001-100] -Sprod[001-100]
More []'s are allowed: server[01-10].cluster[1-5].example.net:portPort number to connect to.
Examples: :22, :2222.
For IPv6 you can use p or # instead of :.
Examples: [2001:470:142:4::a]:2222,
2001:470:142:5::116p2222, 2001:470:142:5::116#22222
There are 3 names with special meaning::
Means 'no ssh' and will therefore run on the local computer.
..
Read sshlogins from ~/.parallel/sshloginfile orPage 39

GNU Parallel$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/parallel/sshloginfile
Read sshlogins from stdin (standard input).
To specify more sshlogins separate the sshlogins by comma, newline (in the same string), or
repeat the options multiple times.
GNU parallel splits on , (comma) so if your sshlogin contains , (comma) you need to replace itwith \, or ,,See --sshloginfile for complete examples.
The remote host must have GNU parallel installed.
--sshlogin is known to cause problems with -m and -X.
See also: --basefile --transferfile --return --cleanup --trc --sshloginfile --workdir--filter-hosts --ssh--sshloginfile filename--slf filename
File with sshlogins. The file consists of sshlogins on separate lines. Empty lines and lines
starting with '#' are ignored. Example:
server.example.com
username@server2.example.com
8/my-8-cpu-server.example.com
2/my_other_username@my-dualcore.example.net# These servers have SSH running on port 2222
ssh -p 2222 server.example.net
server01.example.net:2222
4/ssh -p 2222 quadserver.example.net# Use a different ssh program
myssh -p 2222 -l myusername hexacpu.example.net# Use a different ssh program with default number of CPUs//usr/local/bin/myssh -p 2222 -l myusername hexacpu# Use a different ssh program with 6 CPUs
6//usr/local/bin/myssh -p 2222 -l myusername hexacpu# Assume 16 CPUs on the local computer
16/:# Use password for authentication
user:password@host# Use $SSHPASS for authentication
user:@host# Use $SSHPASS for authentication and current username:@host# Use password for authentication and current username:password@host# Login in as bob with :p@ss:w0rd@ as password
bob::p@ss:w0rd@@host# Put server1 in hostgroup1@hostgroup1/server1# Put myusername@server2 in hostgroup1+hostgroup2@hostgroup1+hostgroup2/myusername@server2# Force 4 CPUs and put 'ssh -p 2222 server3' in hostgroup1@hostgroup1/4/ssh -p 2222 server3# TODO example with ,,When using a different ssh program the last argument must be the hostname.
Multiple --sshloginfile are allowed.
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GNU Parallel
GNU parallel will first look for the file in current dir; if that fails it look for the file in ~/.parallel.
There are 3 names with special meaning:..
Read sshlogins from ~/.parallel/sshloginfile.
Read sshlogins from /etc/parallel/sshloginfile
Read sshlogins from stdin (standard input).
If the sshloginfile is changed it will be re-read when a job finishes though at most once persecond. This makes it possible to add and remove hosts while running.
This can be used to have a daemon that updates the sshloginfile to only contain servers thatare up:cp original.slf tmp2.slf
while [ 1 ] ; donice parallel --nonall -j0 -k --slf original.slf \--tag echo | perl 's/\t$//' > tmp.slf
if diff tmp.slf tmp2.slf; then
mv tmp.slf tmp2.slf
fi
sleep 10done &
parallel --slf tmp2.slf ...
See also: --filter-hosts--slotreplace replace-str
Use the replacement string replace-str instead of {%} for job slot number.
See also: {%}--silent
Silent.
The job to be run will not be printed. This is the default. Can be reversed with -v.
See also: -v--template file=repl--tmpl file=repl
Replace replacement strings in file and save it in repl.
All replacement strings in the contents of file will be replaced. All replacement strings in thename repl will be replaced.
With --cleanup the new file will be removed when the job is done.
If my.tmpl contains this:Xval: {x}Yval: {y}FixedValue: 9# x with 2 decimals
DecimalX: {=x $_=sprintf("%.2f",$_) =}TenX: {=x $_=$_*10 =}RandomVal: {=1 $_=rand() =}it can be used like this:Page 41

GNU Parallel
myprog() { echo Using "$@"; cat "$@"; }export -f myprog
parallel --cleanup --header : --tmpl my.tmpl={#}.t myprog {#}.t \::: x 1.234 2.345 3.45678 ::: y 1 2 3
See also: {} --cleanup--ttyOpen terminal tty.
If GNU parallel is used for starting a program that accesses the tty (such as an interactive
program) then this option may be needed. It will default to starting only one job at a time (i.e.
-j1), not buffer the output (i.e. -u), and it will open a tty for the job.
You can of course override -j1 and -u.
Using --tty unfortunately means that GNU parallel cannot kill the jobs (with --timeout,--memfree, or --halt). This is due to GNU parallel giving each child its own process group,
which is then killed. Process groups are dependant on the tty.
See also: --ungroup --open-tty--tag
Tag lines with arguments.
Each output line will be prepended with the arguments and TAB (\t). When combined with--onall or --nonall the lines will be prepended with the sshlogin instead.
--tag is ignored when using -u.
See also: --tagstring --ctag--tagstring str
Tag lines with a string.
Each output line will be prepended with str and TAB (\t). str can contain replacement strings
such as {}.
--tagstring is ignored when using -u, --onall, and --nonall.
See also: --tag --ctagstring--tee
Pipe all data to all jobs.
Used with --pipe/--pipe-part and :::.
seq 1000 | parallel --pipe --tee -v wc {} ::: -w -l -c
How many numbers in 1..1000 contain 0..9, and how many bytes do they fill:seq 1000 | parallel --pipe --tee --tag \'grep {1} | wc {2}' ::: {0..9} ::: -l -c
How many words contain a..z and how many bytes do they fill?
parallel -a /usr/share/dict/words --pipe-part --tee --tag \'grep {1} | wc {2}' ::: {a..z} ::: -l -c
See also: ::: --pipe --pipe-part--term-seq sequence
Termination sequence.
When a job is killed due to --timeout, --memfree, --halt, or abnormal termination of GNU
parallel, sequence determines how the job is killed. The default is:
TERM,200,TERM,100,TERM,50,KILL,25
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GNU Parallel
which sends a TERM signal, waits 200 ms, sends another TERM signal, waits 100 ms, sends
another TERM signal, waits 50 ms, sends a KILL signal, waits 25 ms, and exits. GNU parallel
detects if a process dies before the waiting time is up.
See also: --halt --timeout --memfree--total-jobs jobs--total jobs
Provide the total number of jobs for computing ETA which is also used for --bar.
Without --total-jobs GNU Parallel will read all jobs before starting a job. --total-jobs is useful
if the input is generated slowly.
See also: --bar --eta--tmpdir dirname
Directory for temporary files.
GNU parallel normally buffers output into temporary files in /tmp. By setting --tmpdir you can
use a different dir for the files. Setting --tmpdir is equivalent to setting $TMPDIR.
See also: --compress $TMPDIR $PARALLEL_REMOTE_TMPDIR--tmux (Long beta testing)
Use tmux for output. Start a tmux session and run each job in a window in that session. No
other output will be produced.
See also: --tmuxpane--tmuxpane (Long beta testing)
Use tmux for output but put output into panes in the first window. Useful if you want to monitor
the progress of less than 100 concurrent jobs.
See also: --tmux--timeout duration
Time out for command. If the command runs for longer than duration seconds it will get killed
as per --term-seq.
If duration is followed by a % then the timeout will dynamically be computed as a percentageof the median average runtime of successful jobs. Only values > 100% will make sense.
duration is in seconds, but can be postfixed with s, m, h, or d.
See also: TIME POSTFIXES --term-seq --retries--verbose-t
Print the job to be run on stderr (standard error).
See also: -v --interactive--transfer
Transfer files to remote computers.
Shorthand for: --transferfile {}.
See also: --transferfile.
--transferfile filename--tf filename
Transfer filename to remote computers.
--transferfile is used with --sshlogin to transfer files to the remote computers. The files will betransferred using rsync and will be put relative to the work dir.
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GNU Parallel
The filename will normally contain a replacement string.
If the path contains /./ the remaining path will be relative to the work dir (for details: see rsync). If the work dir is /home/user, the transferring will be as follows:/tmp/foo/bar=> /tmp/foo/bar
tmp/foo/bar=> /home/user/tmp/foo/bar/tmp/./foo/bar => /home/user/foo/bar
tmp/./foo/bar => /home/user/foo/bar
ExamplesThis will transfer the file foo/bar.txt to the computer server.example.com to the file
$HOME/foo/bar.txt before running wc foo/bar.txt on server.example.com:
echo foo/bar.txt | parallel --transferfile {} \--sshlogin server.example.com wc
This will transfer the file /tmp/foo/bar.txt to the computer server.example.com to the file/tmp/foo/bar.txt before running wc /tmp/foo/bar.txt on server.example.com:
echo /tmp/foo/bar.txt | parallel --transferfile {} \--sshlogin server.example.com wc
This will transfer the file /tmp/foo/bar.txt to the computer server.example.com to the file
foo/bar.txt before running wc ./foo/bar.txt on server.example.com:
echo /tmp/./foo/bar.txt | parallel --transferfile {} \--sshlogin server.example.com wc {= s:.*/\./:./: =}--transferfile is often used with --return and --cleanup. A shorthand for --transferfile {} is--transfer.
--transferfile is ignored when used with --sshlogin : or when not used with --sshlogin.
See also: --workdir --sshlogin --basefile --return --cleanup--trc filename
Transfer, Return, Cleanup. Shorthand for: --transfer --return filename --cleanup
See also: --transfer --return --cleanup--trim <n|l|r|lr|rl>
Trim white space in input.
nNo trim. Input is not modified. This is the default.
lLeft trim. Remove white space from start of input. E.g. " a bc " -> "a bc ".
rRight trim. Remove white space from end of input. E.g. " a bc " -> " a bc".
lrrlBoth trim. Remove white space from both start and end of input. E.g. " a bc " -> "a bc".
This is the default if --colsep is used.
See also: --no-run-if-empty {} --colsep--ungroup-uPage 44

GNU Parallel
Ungroup output.
Output is printed as soon as possible and bypasses GNU parallel internal processing. Thismay cause output from different commands to be mixed thus should only be used if you do notcare about the output. Compare these:seq 4 | parallel -j0 \'sleep {};echo -n start{};sleep {};echo {}end'
seq 4 | parallel -u -j0 \'sleep {};echo -n start{};sleep {};echo {}end'
It also disables --tag. GNU parallel outputs faster with -u. Compare the speeds of these:
parallel seq ::: 300000000 >/dev/nullparallel -u seq ::: 300000000 >/dev/nullparallel --line-buffer seq ::: 300000000 >/dev/null
Can be reversed with --group.
See also: --line-buffer --group--extensionreplace replace-str--er replace-str
Use the replacement string replace-str instead of {.} for input line without extension.
See also: {.}--use-sockets-instead-of-threads
See also: --use-cores-instead-of-threads--use-cores-instead-of-threads--use-cpus-instead-of-cores (obsolete)
Determine how GNU parallel counts the number of CPUs.
GNU parallel uses this number when the number of jobslots (--jobs) is computed relative tothe number of CPUs (e.g. 100% or +1).
CPUs can be counted in three different ways:
sockets
The number of filled CPU sockets (i.e. the number of physical chips).
cores
The number of physical cores (i.e. the number of physical compute cores).
threads
The number of hyperthreaded cores (i.e. the number of virtual cores - withsome of them possibly being hyperthreaded)
Normally the number of CPUs is computed as the number of CPU threads. With--use-sockets-instead-of-threads or --use-cores-instead-of-threads you can force it to becomputed as the number of filled sockets or number of cores instead.
Most users will not need these options.
--use-cpus-instead-of-cores is a (misleading) alias for --use-sockets-instead-of-threads
and is kept for backwards compatibility.
See also: --number-of-threads --number-of-cores --number-of-sockets-v
Verbose.
Print the job to be run on stdout (standard output). Can be reversed with --silent.
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GNU Parallel
Use -v -v to print the wrapping ssh command when running remotely.
See also: -t--version-V
Print the version GNU parallel and exit.
--workdir mydir--wd mydir
Jobs will be run in the dir mydir. The default is the current dir for the local machine, and thelogin dir for remote computers.
Files transferred using --transferfile and --return will be relative to mydir on remotecomputers.
The special mydir value ... will create working dirs under ~/.parallel/tmp/. If --cleanup is giventhese dirs will be removed.
The special mydir value . uses the current working dir. If the current working dir is beneathyour home dir, the value . is treated as the relative path to your home dir. This means that if
your home dir is different on remote computers (e.g. if your login is different) the relative pathwill still be relative to your home dir.
To see the difference try:
parallel -S server pwd ::: ""parallel --wd . -S server pwd ::: ""parallel --wd ... -S server pwd ::: ""mydir can contain GNU parallel's replacement strings.
--waitWait for all commands to complete.
Used with --semaphore or --sqlmaster.
See also: man sem-X
Multiple arguments with context replace. Insert as many arguments as the command line
length permits. If multiple jobs are being run in parallel: distribute the arguments evenly among
the jobs. Use -j1 to avoid this.
If {} is not used the arguments will be appended to the line. If {} is used as part of a word (likepic{}.jpg) then the whole word will be repeated. If {} is used multiple times each {} will be
replaced with the arguments.
Normally -X will do the right thing, whereas -m can give unexpected results if {} is used as partof a word.
Support for -X with --sshlogin is limited and may fail.
See also: -m--exit-x
Exit if the size (see the -s option) is exceeded.
--xargs
Multiple arguments. Insert as many arguments as the command line length permits.
If {} is not used the arguments will be appended to the line. If {} is used multiple times each {}will be replaced with all the arguments.
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GNU Parallel
Support for --xargs with --sshlogin is limited and may fail.
See also: -X

EXAMPLES
See: man parallel_examples

SPREADING BLOCKS OF DATA--round-robin, --pipe-part, --shard, --bin and --group-by are all specialized versions of --pipe.
In the following n is the number of jobslots given by --jobs. A record starts with --recstart and ends
with --recend. It is typically a full line. A chunk is a number of full records that is approximately thesize of a block. A block can contain half records, a chunk cannot.
--pipe starts one job per chunk. It reads blocks from stdin (standard input). It finds a record end neara block border and passes a chunk to the program.
--pipe-part starts one job per chunk - just like normal --pipe. It first finds record endings near all blockborders in the file and then starts the jobs. By using --block -1 it will set the block size to size-of-file/n.
Used this way it will start n jobs in total.
--round-robin starts n jobs in total. It reads a block and passes a chunk to whichever job is ready toread. It does not parse the content except for identifying where a record ends to make sure it only
passes full records.
--shard starts n jobs in total. It parses each line to read the string in the given column. Based on thisstring the line is passed to one of the n jobs. All lines having this string will be given to the samejobslot.
--bin works like --shard but the value of the column must be numeric and is the jobslot number it will
be passed to. If the value is bigger than n, then n will be subtracted from the value until the value issmaller than or equal to n.
--group-by starts one job per chunk. Record borders are not given by --recend/--recstart. Instead arecord is defined by a group of lines having the same string in a given column. So the string of a given
column changes at a chunk border. With --pipe every line is parsed, with --pipe-part only a few lines
are parsed to find the chunk border.
--group-by can be combined with --round-robin or --pipe-part.

TIME POSTFIXES
Arguments that give a duration are given in seconds, but can be expressed as floats postfixed with s,m, h, or d which would multiply the float by 1, 60, 60*60, or 60*60*24. Thus these are equivalent:
100000 and 1d3.5h16.6m4s.

UNIT PREFIX
Many numerical arguments in GNU parallel can be postfixed with K, M, G, T, P, k, m, g, t, or p which
would multiply the number with 1024, 1048576, 1073741824, 1099511627776, 1125899906842624,
1000, 1000000, 1000000000, 1000000000000, or 1000000000000000, respectively.
You can even give it as a math expression. E.g. 1000000 can be written as 1M-12*2.024*2k.

QUOTING
GNU parallel is very liberal in quoting. You only need to quote characters that have special meaning
in shell:( ) $ ` ' " < > ; | \and depending on context these needs to be quoted, too:
~ & ! ? space * { #Page 47

GNU Parallel
Therefore most people will never need more quoting than putting '\' in front of the special characters.
Often you can simply put \' around every ':perl -ne '/^\S+\s+\S+$/ and print $ARGV,"\n"' filecan be quoted:
parallel perl -ne \''/^\S+\s+\S+$/ and print $ARGV,"\n"'\' ::: file
However, when you want to use a shell variable you need to quote the $-sign. Here is an example
using $PARALLEL_SEQ. This variable is set by GNU parallel itself, so the evaluation of the $ must
be done by the sub shell started by GNU parallel:
seq 10 | parallel -N2 echo seq:\$PARALLEL_SEQ arg1:{1} arg2:{2}If the variable is set before GNU parallel starts you can do this:VAR=this_is_set_before_starting
echo test | parallel echo {} $VAR
Prints: test this_is_set_before_starting
It is a little more tricky if the variable contains more than one space in a row:
VAR="two spaces between each word"echo test | parallel echo {} \'"$VAR"\'Prints: test two spaces between each word
If the variable should not be evaluated by the shell starting GNU parallel but be evaluated by the subshell started by GNU parallel, then you need to quote it:echo test | parallel VAR=this_is_set_after_starting \; echo {} \$VAR
Prints: test this_is_set_after_starting
It is a little more tricky if the variable contains space:echo test |\parallel VAR='"two

spacesbetweeneachword"' echo {} \'"$VAR"\'Prints: test two spaces between each word$$ is the shell variable containing the process id of the shell. This will print the process id of the shellrunning GNU parallel:
seq 10 | parallel echo $$And this will print the process ids of the sub shells started by GNU parallel.
seq 10 | parallel echo \$\$
If the special characters should not be evaluated by the sub shell then you need to protect it against
evaluation from both the shell starting GNU parallel and the sub shell:echo test | parallel echo {} \\\$VAR
Prints: test $VAR
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GNU Parallel
GNU parallel can protect against evaluation by the sub shell by using -q:
echo test | parallel -q echo {} \$VAR
Prints: test $VAR
This is particularly useful if you have lots of quoting. If you want to run a perl script like this:perl -ne '/^\S+\s+\S+$/ and print $ARGV,"\n"' file
It needs to be quoted like one of these:ls | parallel perl -ne '/^\\S+\\s+\\S+\$/\ and\ print\ \$ARGV,\"\\n\"'ls | parallel perl -ne \''/^\S+\s+\S+$/ and print $ARGV,"\n"'\'Notice how spaces, \'s, "'s, and $'s need to be quoted. GNU parallel can do the quoting by using
option -q:
ls | parallel -q

perl -ne '/^\S+\s+\S+$/ and print $ARGV,"\n"'However, this means you cannot make the sub shell interpret special characters. For example
because of -q this WILL NOT WORK:
ls *.gz | parallel -q "zcat {} >{.}"
ls *.gz | parallel -q "zcat {} | bzip2 >{.}.bz2"
because > and | need to be interpreted by the sub shell.
If you get errors like:sh: -c: line 0: syntax error near unexpected token
sh: Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string
sh: -c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''sh: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of filezsh:1: no matches found:then you might try using -q.
If you are using bash process substitution like <(cat foo) then you may try -q and prepending
command with bash -c:
ls | parallel -q bash -c 'wc -c <(echo {})'
Or for substituting output:
ls | parallel -q bash -c \'tar c {} | tee >(gzip >{}.tar.gz) | bzip2 >{}.tar.bz2'
Conclusion: If this is confusing consider avoiding having to deal with quoting by writing a small script
or a function (remember to export -f the function) and have GNU parallel call that.

LIST RUNNING JOBS
If you want a list of the jobs currently running you can run:killall -USR1 parallel
GNU parallel will then print the currently running jobs on stderr (standard error).

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GNU Parallel

COMPLETE RUNNING JOBS BUT DO NOT START NEW JOBS
If you regret starting a lot of jobs you can simply break GNU parallel, but if you want to make sure
you do not have half-completed jobs you should send the signal SIGHUP to GNU parallel:
killall -HUP parallel
This will tell GNU parallel to not start any new jobs, but wait until the currently running jobs are
finished before exiting.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES$PARALLEL_HOME
Dir where GNU parallel stores config files, semaphores, and caches information
between invocations. If set to a non-existent dir, the dir will be created.
Default: $HOME/.parallel.
$PARALLEL_ARGHOSTGROUPS
When using --hostgroups GNU parallel sets this to the hostgroups of the job.
Remember to quote the $, so it gets evaluated by the correct shell. Or use --plusand {agrp}.
$PARALLEL_HOSTGROUPS
When using --hostgroups GNU parallel sets this to the hostgroups of the sshloginthat the job is run on.
Remember to quote the $, so it gets evaluated by the correct shell. Or use --plusand {hgrp}.
$PARALLEL_JOBSLOT
Set by GNU parallel and can be used in jobs run by GNU parallel. Remember toquote the $, so it gets evaluated by the correct shell. Or use --plus and {slot}.
$PARALLEL_JOBSLOT is the jobslot of the job. It is equal to {%} unless the job isbeing retried. See {%} for details.
$PARALLEL_PID
Set by GNU parallel and can be used in jobs run by GNU parallel. Remember toquote the $, so it gets evaluated by the correct shell.
This makes it possible for the jobs to communicate directly to GNU parallel.
Example: If each of the jobs tests a solution and one of jobs finds the solution thejob can tell GNU parallel not to start more jobs by: kill -HUP $PARALLEL_PID. This
only works on the local computer.
$PARALLEL_RSYNC_OPTS
Options to pass on to rsync. Defaults to: -rlDzR.
$PARALLEL_SHELL
Use this shell for the commands run by GNU parallel:$PARALLEL_SHELL. If undefined use:
The shell that started GNU parallel. If that cannot be determined:$SHELL. If undefined use:/bin/sh$PARALLEL_SSH
GNU parallel defaults to using the ssh command for remote access. This can be
Page 50

GNU Parallel
overridden with $PARALLEL_SSH, which again can be overridden with --ssh. It canalso be set on a per server basis (see --sshlogin).
$PARALLEL_SSHHOST
Set by GNU parallel and can be used in jobs run by GNU parallel. Remember toquote the $, so it gets evaluated by the correct shell. Or use --plus and {host}.
$PARALLEL_SSHHOST is the host part of an sshlogin line. E.g.
4//usr/bin/specialssh user@host
becomes:host$PARALLEL_SSHLOGIN
Set by GNU parallel and can be used in jobs run by GNU parallel. Remember toquote the $, so it gets evaluated by the correct shell. Or use --plus and {sshlogin}.
The value is the sshlogin line with number of threads removed. E.g.
4//usr/bin/specialssh user@host
becomes:/usr/bin/specialssh user@host$PARALLEL_SEQ
Set by GNU parallel and can be used in jobs run by GNU parallel. Remember toquote the $, so it gets evaluated by the correct shell.
$PARALLEL_SEQ is the sequence number of the job running.
Example:seq 10 | parallel -N2 \echo seq:'$'PARALLEL_SEQ arg1:{1} arg2:{2}{#} is a shorthand for $PARALLEL_SEQ.
$PARALLEL_TMUXPath to tmux. If unset the tmux in $PATH is used.
$TMPDIR
Directory for temporary files.
See also: --tmpdir$PARALLEL_REMOTE_TMPDIR
Directory for temporary files on remote servers.
See also: --tmpdir$PARALLEL
The environment variable $PARALLEL will be used as default options for GNU
parallel. If the variable contains special shell characters (e.g. $, *, or space) thenthese need to be to be escaped with \.
Example:cat list | parallel -j1 -k -v ls
cat list | parallel -j1 -k -v -S"myssh user@server" ls
can be written as:
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GNU Parallel
cat list | PARALLEL="-kvj1" parallel ls
cat list | PARALLEL='-kvj1 -S myssh\ user@server' \parallel echo
Notice the \ after 'myssh' is needed because 'myssh' and 'user@server' must be one
argument.
See also: --profile

DEFAULT PROFILE (CONFIG FILE)
The global configuration file /etc/parallel/config, followed by user configuration file ~/.parallel/config(formerly known as .parallelrc) will be read in turn if they exist. Lines starting with '#' will be ignored.
The format can follow that of the environment variable $PARALLEL, but it is often easier to simply put
each option on its own line.
Options on the command line take precedence, followed by the environment variable $PARALLEL,
user configuration file ~/.parallel/config, and finally the global configuration file /etc/parallel/config.
Note that no file that is read for options, nor the environment variable $PARALLEL, may containretired options such as --tollef.

PROFILE FILES
If --profile set, GNU parallel will read the profile from that file rather than the global or user
configuration files. You can have multiple --profiles.
Profiles are searched for in ~/.parallel. If the name starts with / it is seen as an absolute path. If thename starts with ./ it is seen as a relative path from current dir.
Example: Profile for running a command on every sshlogin in ~/.ssh/sshlogins and prepend the output
with the sshlogin:echo --tag -S .. --nonall > ~/.parallel/nonall_profile
parallel -J nonall_profile uptime
Example: Profile for running every command with -j-1 and niceecho -j-1 nice > ~/.parallel/nice_profile
parallel -J nice_profile bzip2 -9 ::: *Example: Profile for running a perl script before every command:echo "perl -e '\$a=\$\$; print \$a,\" \",'\$PARALLEL_SEQ',\" \";';" \> ~/.parallel/pre_perl
parallel -J pre_perl echo ::: *Note how the $ and " need to be quoted using \.
Example: Profile for running distributed jobs with nice on the remote computers:
echo -S .. nice > ~/.parallel/distparallel -J dist --trc {.}.bz2 bzip2 -9 ::: *EXIT STATUS
Exit status depends on --halt-on-error if one of these is used: success=X, success=Y%, fail=Y%.
0

All jobs ran without error. If success=X is used: X jobs ran without error. If success=Y% isused: Y% of the jobs ran without error.

1-100
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Some of the jobs failed. The exit status gives the number of failed jobs. If Y% is used theexit status is the percentage of jobs that failed.
101

More than 100 jobs failed.

255

Other error.

-1 (In joblog and SQL table)
Killed by Ctrl-C, timeout, not enough memory or similar.
-2 (In joblog and SQL table)skip() was called in {= =}.
-1000 (In SQL table)
Job is ready to run (set by --sqlmaster).
-1220 (In SQL table)
Job is taken by worker (set by --sqlworker).
If fail=1 is used, the exit status will be the exit status of the failing job.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GNU Parallel AND ALTERNATIVES
See: man parallel_alternatives

BUGS
Quoting of newline
Because of the way newline is quoted this will not work:echo 1,2,3 | parallel -vkd, "echo 'a{}b'"
However, these will all work:echo 1,2,3 | parallel -vkd, echo a{}becho 1,2,3 | parallel -vkd, "echo 'a'{}'b'"echo 1,2,3 | parallel -vkd, "echo 'a'"{}"'b'"

SpeedStartup
GNU parallel is slow at starting up - around 250 ms the first time and 150 ms after that.
Job startup
Starting a job on the local machine takes around 3-10 ms. This can be a big overhead if the job takes
very few ms to run. Often you can group small jobs together using -X which will make the overhead
less significant. Or you can run multiple GNU parallels as described in EXAMPLE: Speeding up fast
jobs.
SSH
When using multiple computers GNU parallel opens ssh connections to them to figure out how many
connections can be used reliably simultaneously (Namely SSHD's MaxStartups). This test is done foreach host in serial, so if your --sshloginfile contains many hosts it may be slow.
If your jobs are short you may see that there are fewer jobs running on the remote systems than
expected. This is due to time spent logging in and out. -M may help here.
Disk accessA single disk can normally read data faster if it reads one file at a time instead of reading a lot of files
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GNU Parallel
faster if reading from multiple files in parallel.
If the jobs are of the form read-all-compute-all-write-all, so everything is read before anything is
written, it may be faster to force only one disk access at the time:sem --id diskio cat file | compute | sem --id diskio cat > file
If the jobs are of the form read-compute-write, so writing starts before all reading is done, it may befaster to force only one reader and writer at the time:sem --id read cat file | compute | sem --id write cat > file
If the jobs are of the form read-compute-read-compute, it may be faster to run more jobs in parallel
than the system has CPUs, as some of the jobs will be stuck waiting for disk access.

--nice limits command length
The current implementation of --nice is too pessimistic in the max allowed command length. It onlyuses a little more than half of what it could. This affects -X and -m. If this becomes a real problem foryou, file a bug-report.

Aliases and functions do not work
If you get:Can't exec "command": No such file or directoryor:
open3: exec of by command failed
or:/bin/bash: command: command not foundit may be because command is not known, but it could also be because command is an alias or afunction. If it is a function you need to export -f the function first or use env_parallel. An alias will
only work if you use env_parallel.

Database with MySQL fails randomly
The --sql* options may fail randomly with MySQL. This problem does not exist with PostgreSQL.

REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <parallel@gnu.org> or https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=additem&group=parallel
When you write your report, please keep in mind, that you must give the reader enough information to
be able to run exactly what you run. So you need to include all data and programs that you use toshow the problem.
See a perfect bug report on https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-parallel/2015-01/msg00000.html
Your bug report should always include:
The error message you get (if any). If the error message is not from GNU parallel you need toshow why you think GNU parallel caused this.
The complete output of parallel --version. If you are not running the latest released version (seehttps://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parallel/) you should specify why you believe the problem is not fixed in thatversion.
A minimal, complete, and verifiable example (See description on
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https://stackoverflow.com/help/mcve).
It should be a complete example that others can run which shows the problem including all files
needed to run the example. This should preferably be small and simple, so try to remove as many
options as possible.
A combination of yes, seq, cat, echo, wc, and sleep can reproduce most errors.
If your example requires large files, see if you can make them with something like seq 100000000> bigfile or yes | head -n 1000000000 > file. If you need multiple columns: paste <(seq 1000)<(seq 1000 1999)
If your example requires remote execution, see if you can use localhost - maybe using anotherlogin.
If you have access to a different system (maybe a VirtualBox on your own machine), test if your
MCVE shows the problem on that system. If it does not, read below.
The output of your example. If your problem is not easily reproduced by others, the output might
help them figure out the problem.
Whether you have watched the intro videos(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL284C9FF2488BC6D1), walked through the tutorial (manparallel_tutorial), and read the examples (man parallel_examples).

Bug dependent on environment
If you suspect the error is dependent on your environment or distribution, please see if you canreproduce the error on one of these VirtualBox images:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualboximage/files/ https://www.osboxes.org/virtualbox-images/
Specifying the name of your distribution is not enough as you may have installed software that is notin the VirtualBox images.
If you cannot reproduce the error on any of the VirtualBox images above, see if you can build a
VirtualBox image on which you can reproduce the error. If not you should assume the debugging will
be done through you. That will put a lot more burden on you and it is extra important you give any
information that help. In general the problem will be fixed faster and with much less work for you if you
can reproduce the error on a VirtualBox - even if you have to build a VirtualBox image.

In summaryYour report must include:
parallel --version
output + error message
full example including all files
VirtualBox image, if you cannot reproduce it on other systems

AUTHOR
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.
This helps funding further development; and it won't cost you a cent. If you pay 10000 EUR you
should feel free to use GNU Parallel without citing.
Copyright (C) 2007-10-18 Ole Tange, http://ole.tange.dk
Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Ole Tange, http://ole.tange.dk
Copyright (C) 2010-2024 Ole Tange, http://ole.tange.dk and Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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GNU Parallel
Parts of the manual concerning xargs compatibility is inspired by the manual of xargs from GNU
findutils 4.4.2.

LICENSEThis program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of theLicense, or at your option any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; withouteven the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not,see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Documentation license I
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this documentation under the terms of the
GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A
copy of the license is included in the file LICENSES/GFDL-1.3-or-later.txt.

Documentation license II
You are free:
to Shareto copy, distribute and transmit the work
to Remix
to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
Attribution
You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but notin any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Share AlikeIf you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work
only under the same, similar or a compatible license.
With the understanding that:
WaiverAny of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyrightholder.
Public Domain
Where the work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law,that status is in no way affected by the license.
Other Rights
In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license:
Your fair dealing or fair use rights, or other applicable copyright exceptions andlimitations;
The author's moral rights;
Rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work isused, such as publicity or privacy rights.
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GNU Parallel
NoticeFor any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of thiswork.
A copy of the full license is included in the file as LICENCES/CC-BY-SA-4.0.txt

DEPENDENCIES
GNU parallel uses Perl, and the Perl modules Getopt::Long, IPC::Open3, Symbol, IO::File, POSIX,and File::Temp.
For --csv it uses the Perl module Text::CSV.
For remote usage it uses rsync with ssh.

SEE ALSO
parallel_tutorial(1), env_parallel(1), parset(1), parsort(1), parallel_alternatives(1),parallel_design(7), niceload(1), sql(1), ssh(1), ssh-agent(1), sshpass(1), ssh-copy-id(1), rsync(1)

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