Re: [Help-bash] parallel processing in bash (to replace for loop)

[Greg Wooledge]

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 11:13:37AM -0600, Peng Yu wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 7:28 AM, Greg Wooledge <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> > for i in {1..5}; do
> >   foobar "$i" &
> > done
> > wait

> This won't work if you have many foobar to run.

Are you by chance trying to ask THIS question?

  I want to process a bunch of files in parallel, and when one finishes,
  I want to start the next. And I want to make sure there are exactly 5
  jobs running at a time.

> > See also http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ProcessManagement

Or more specifically,

http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ProcessManagement#I_want_to_process_a_bunch_of_files_in_parallel.2C_and_when_one_finishes.2C_I_want_to_start_the_next._And_I_want_to_make_sure_there_are_exactly_5_jobs_running_at_a_time.

will take you straight to it.

If that is NOT the question you are attempting to ask, then please ask
whatever it is you are trying to ask.