par(1)                     OpenBSD Reference Manual                     par(1)



NAME
       par - parallel command processing

SYNOPSIS
       par [-dfiqx] [-c  command] [-l  logfile] [-n #] file [file...]

DESCRIPTION
       par takes a list of files to run a command on.  The first line of each
       file begins with a colon (:) or a pound-sign (#).  If a colon, the
       remainder of the line is a command to run for each of the subsequent
       lines.  If a pound-sign, then each subsequent line is a (self-
       contained) command, unless the -c option was specified, in which case
       it operates as if the argument to -c had followed a colon on the first
       line.

       In each of the cases where the lines of the file following the first
       are not commands (i.e.: colon or -c), instances of open-close braces
       ({}) in the command will be replaced by these values.

       For example, a inputfile whose contents is:

            : echo {}
            a
            b
            c

       run with par like so:

            %par -q inputfile

       will produce the following output (order will vary):

            b
            a
            c

       The command-line options are as follows:

       -c     Command to be run on each of the arguments following the
              command-line options, where the first line of the input file(s)
              begins with a pound-sign (#).

       -d     Print debugging information on standard error (stderr).

       -f     No file or STDIN, just run a quantity of the command specified
              with -c.

       -i     Run commands interactively through (multiple) xterm(1)
              processes.

       -l     Prefix of logfile name, as in prefix.N where N is the par
              process number ([0..]).

              Default: par.log.<time>.[0..]

       -n     Number of simultaneous processes.

              Default: 3

       -q     Quiet mode.  Do not log anything.  -q is mutually exclusive with
              the -x and -l options and the option appearing last will take
              precedence.

       -x     View par logs in real-time via an xterm(1).

FILES
       par.log.T.N Log file; where T is the current time in seconds since the
       epoch and N is the par process number ([0..]).



                               18 December 2007                         par(1)
