NAME

pexec - executing commands in parallel

SYNOPSIS

pexec [options] [-c|-m] [--] command [arguments] | 'compound command'

DESCRIPTION

Execute commands or shell scripts in parallel on a single host or on remote hosts using a remote shell.

OPTIONS

General options:

-h, --help: Gives general summary about the command line options.
--long-help: Gives a detailed list of command line options.
--version: Gives some version information about the program.
-s, --shell <shell>: Full path (e.g. /bin/sh) of the shell or interpreter to be used for script execution.
-c, --shell-command: Use the specified shell to interpret the command(s) instead of direct execution.
-m, --multiple-command: Allow multiple individual shell command scripts to be executed in parallel with the variation of the parameters.
-e, --environment <variable>: Name of an environmental variable which is set to the respective parameter before each execution.
-n, --number <number>: The maximal number of processes running simultaneously. The <number> itself can even be a complex specification of remote hosts (see documentation for more details).
-C, --control <port>: The control port of a hypervisor daemon (full path of a UNIX socket or an INET host specification).
-p, --list <list>: The single-argument form of main parameter list.
-r, --parameters <list>: The multiple-argument form of the main parameter list.
-f, --listfile <file>: The main parameter list file.
-w, --column <index>: The column index from where the parameters should be taken if they are read from a parameter file.
-t, --complete: Threat the whole line as a single parameter if the parameters are read from a file.
-z, --nice: Sets the scheduling priority of pexec and all children (executed processes) to the priority defined by this nice value.
--: A marker after which the command to execute begins.

Redirecting standard input, output and error:

-i, --input <input>: The (optionally formatted) name of the input file which is used for redirecting the standard input.
-o, --output <output>: The (optionally formatted) name of the output file which is used for redirecting the standard output.
-u, --error <output>: The (optionally formatted) name of the output error file, which is used for redirecting the standard error.
-R, --normal-redirection: Equivalent to specifying --output -, --error - and --input /dev/null.
-a, --output-format <format>: The format of the final standard output redirection if the output of all of the processes are gathered into the same file.
-b, --error-format <format>: The same final redirection format for the standard error.
-x, --omit-newlines: Disable automatic newlines after the output and error formats.

Execution using remote hosts:

-g, --remote-shell <remote_shell>: The name or full path of the remote shell to be used for building the tunnel between the local and the peer host(s). Default: ``/usr/bin/ssh''.
-P, --pexec <pexec>: The full path of the pexec program on the remote hosts. If this option is omitted, pexec tries to figure out from the invoking syntax and/or the current path.
-T, --tunnel: Internal use only (pexec will start in tunnel daemon mode).

Remote control, mutual exclusions and atomic command execution:

-y, --bind <port>: This option lets pexec to be remote controlled via INET or UNIX domain sockets.
-E, --pexec-connection-variable <env>: This option overrides the default environment name PEXEC_REMOTE_PORT to the specified value, which is used by the ``-p|--connect auto'' combination to determine the control socket with which the running pexec instance can be controlled.
-j, --remote: Used to remote control and/or poll the status of other running instances of pexec.
-p, --connect <port>: Remote control port to connect to.
-t, --status: Prints the actual status of the running jobs in a human-readable form.
-l, --lock <mutex>: Locks the specified mutex (if the mutex is not locked by someone else, otherwise it will block until the mutex is released).
-u, --unlock <mutex>: Unlocks the specified mutex.
-m, --mutex <mutex>: Name of the mutex.
-d, --dump <filename>: Dump the content of the given file to standard output, if ``-m|--mutex'' is given, this will be atomic.
-s, --save <filename>: Save the content of standard input to the given file, if ``-m|--mutex'' is given, this will be atomic.
-a, --atomic <command>: Execute the given command. If ``-m|--mutex'' is given, the exectution is going to be atomic with respect to that mutex.

Hypervisor mode:

-H, --hypervisor: Starts pexec in hypervisor mode.
-C, --control <port>: The control port used by the hypervisor.
-l, --load <window>: Use load also to limit the number of simultaneous processes with the specified load average interval (0, 1 or 2, or 1min, 5min or 15min, respectively).
-f, --fifo: First in first out queue processing.
-s, --lifo: Last in first out (stack) queue processing (default).

Logging:

-L, --log <file>: The name of the log file.
-W, --log-level <level>: The logging level.
-V, --verbose: Increase the log level by one.

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to <apal@szofi.elte.hu>

COPYRIGHT

This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

This software was written by Andras Pal. The core part was written while working for the Hungarian-made Automated Telescope (HAT) project to make the data processing more easier and therefore find many-many extrasolar planets. See more information about this project: http://hatnet.hu. Another internal libraries (e.g. numhash.[ch]) were primarily written for other projects.