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<p><a name="__index__"></a></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#name">NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="#synopsis">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
<li><a href="#description">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
<li><a href="#options">OPTIONS</a></li>
<li><a href="#example__gzipping___log">EXAMPLE: Gzipping *.log</a></li>
<li><a href="#example__protecting_pod2html_from_itself">EXAMPLE: Protecting pod2html from itself</a></li>
<li><a href="#bugs">BUGS</a></li>
<li><a href="#reporting_bugs">REPORTING BUGS</a></li>
<li><a href="#author">AUTHOR</a></li>
<li><a href="#license">LICENSE</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#documentation_license_i">Documentation license I</a></li>
<li><a href="#documentation_license_ii">Documentation license II</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="#dependencies">DEPENDENCIES</a></li>
<li><a href="#see_also">SEE ALSO</a></li>
</ul>
<hr name="index" />
</div>
<!-- INDEX END -->
<p>
</p>
<h1><a name="name">NAME</a></h1>
<p>sem - semaphore for executing shell command lines in parallel</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="synopsis">SYNOPSIS</a></h1>
<p><strong>sem</strong> [--fg] [--id <id>] [--timeout <secs>] [-j <num>] [--wait] command</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="description">DESCRIPTION</a></h1>
<p>GNU <strong>sem</strong> is an alias for GNU <strong>parallel --semaphore</strong>.</p>
<p>It works as a tool for executing shell commands in parallel. GNU
<strong>sem</strong> acts as a counting semaphore. When GNU <strong>sem</strong> is called with
command it will start the command in the background. When <em>num</em>
number of commands are running in the background, GNU <strong>sem</strong> will wait
for one of these to complete before starting another command.</p>
<p>Before looking at the options you may want to check out the examples
after the list of options. That will give you an idea of what GNU
<strong>sem</strong> is capable of.</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="options">OPTIONS</a></h1>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="command" class="item"><em>command</em></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Command to execute. The command may be followed by arguments for the command.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="bg" class="item"><strong>--bg</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Run command in background thus GNU <strong>parallel</strong> will not wait for
completion of the command before exiting. This is the default.</p>
<p>See also: <strong>--fg</strong></p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="j_n" class="item"><strong>-j</strong> <em>N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Run up to N commands in parallel. Default is 1 thus acting like a
mutex.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="jobs_n" class="item"><strong>--jobs</strong> <em>N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="j_n2" class="item"><strong>-j</strong> <em>N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="max_procs_n" class="item"><strong>--max-procs</strong> <em>N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="p_n" class="item"><strong>-P</strong> <em>N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Run up to N commands in parallel. Default is 1 thus acting like a
mutex.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="jobs_n2" class="item"><strong>--jobs</strong> <em>+N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="j_n3" class="item"><strong>-j</strong> <em>+N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="max_procs_n2" class="item"><strong>--max-procs</strong> <em>+N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="p_n2" class="item"><strong>-P</strong> <em>+N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Add N to the number of CPU cores. Run up to this many jobs in
parallel. For compute intensive jobs <strong>-j</strong> +0 is useful as it will run
number-of-cpu-cores jobs simultaneously.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="jobs_n3" class="item"><strong>--jobs</strong> <em>-N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="j_n4" class="item"><strong>-j</strong> <em>-N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="max_procs_n3" class="item"><strong>--max-procs</strong> <em>-N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="p_n3" class="item"><strong>-P</strong> <em>-N</em></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Subtract N from the number of CPU cores. Run up to this many jobs in
parallel. If the evaluated number is less than 1 then 1 will be used.
See also <strong>--use-cpus-instead-of-cores</strong>.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="jobs_n4" class="item"><strong>--jobs</strong> <em>N</em>%</a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="j_n5" class="item"><strong>-j</strong> <em>N</em>%</a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="max_procs_n4" class="item"><strong>--max-procs</strong> <em>N</em>%</a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="p_n4" class="item"><strong>-P</strong> <em>N</em>%</a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Multiply N% with the number of CPU cores. Run up to this many jobs in
parallel. If the evaluated number is less than 1 then 1 will be used.
See also <strong>--use-cpus-instead-of-cores</strong>.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="jobs_procfile" class="item"><strong>--jobs</strong> <em>procfile</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="j_procfile" class="item"><strong>-j</strong> <em>procfile</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="max_procs_procfile" class="item"><strong>--max-procs</strong> <em>procfile</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="p_procfile" class="item"><strong>-P</strong> <em>procfile</em></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Read parameter from file. Use the content of <em>procfile</em> as parameter
for <em>-j</em>. E.g. <em>procfile</em> could contain the string 100% or +2 or
10.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="semaphorename_name" class="item"><strong>--semaphorename</strong> <em>name</em></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="id_name" class="item"><strong>--id</strong> <em>name</em></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Use <strong>name</strong> as the name of the semaphore. Default is the name of the
controlling tty (output from <strong>tty</strong>).</p>
<p>The default normally works as expected when used interactively, but
when used in a script <em>name</em> should be set. <em>$$</em> or <em>my_task_name</em>
are often a good value.</p>
<p>The semaphore is stored in ~/.parallel/semaphores/</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="fg" class="item"><strong>--fg</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Do not put command in background.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="secs" class="item"><strong>--timeout</strong> <em>secs</em> (not implemented)</a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><strong>-t</strong> <em>secs</em> (not implemented)</strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>If the semaphore is not released within <em>secs</em> seconds, take it anyway.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="wait" class="item"><strong>--wait</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dt><strong><a name="w" class="item"><strong>-w</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Wait for all commands to complete.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="example__gzipping___log">EXAMPLE: Gzipping *.log</a></h1>
<p>Run one gzip process per CPU core. Block until a CPU core becomes
available.</p>
<pre>
for i in *.log ; do
echo $i
sem -j+0 gzip $i ";" echo done
done
sem --wait</pre>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="example__protecting_pod2html_from_itself">EXAMPLE: Protecting pod2html from itself</a></h1>
<p>pod2html creates two files: pod2htmd.tmp and pod2htmi.tmp which it
does not clean up. It uses these two files for a short time. But if
you run multiple pod2html in parallel (e.g. in a Makefile with make
-j) you need to protect pod2html from running twice at the same
time. <strong>sem</strong> running as a mutex will do just that:</p>
<pre>
sem --fg --id pod2html pod2html foo.pod > foo.html
sem --fg --id pod2html rm -f pod2htmd.tmp pod2htmi.tmp</pre>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="bugs">BUGS</a></h1>
<p>None known.</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="reporting_bugs">REPORTING BUGS</a></h1>
<p>Report bugs to <<a href="mailto:bug-parallel@gnu.org">bug-parallel@gnu.org</a>>.</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="author">AUTHOR</a></h1>
<p>Copyright (C) 2010,2011 Ole Tange, <a href="http://ole.tange.dk">http://ole.tange.dk</a> and Free
Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="license">LICENSE</a></h1>
<p>Copyright (C) 2010,2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
<p>This 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 the License, or
at your option any later version.</p>
<p>This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.</p>
<p>You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.</p>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="documentation_license_i">Documentation license I</a></h2>
<p>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 fdl.txt.</p>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="documentation_license_ii">Documentation license II</a></h2>
<p>You are free:</p>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="to_share" class="item"><strong>to Share</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>to copy, distribute and transmit the work</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="to_remix" class="item"><strong>to Remix</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>to adapt the work</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<p>Under the following conditions:</p>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="attribution" class="item"><strong>Attribution</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or
licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or
your use of the work).</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="share_alike" class="item"><strong>Share Alike</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute
the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible
license.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<p>With the understanding that:</p>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="waiver" class="item"><strong>Waiver</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from
the copyright holder.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="public_domain" class="item"><strong>Public Domain</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>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.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="other_rights" class="item"><strong>Other Rights</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Your fair dealing or fair use rights, or other applicable
copyright exceptions and limitations;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The author's moral rights;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in
how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="notice" class="item"><strong>Notice</strong></a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the
license terms of this work.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<p>A copy of the full license is included in the file as cc-by-sa.txt.</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="dependencies">DEPENDENCIES</a></h1>
<p>GNU <strong>sem</strong> uses Perl, and the Perl modules Getopt::Long,
Symbol, Fcntl.</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="see_also">SEE ALSO</a></h1>
<p><strong>parallel</strong>(1)</p>
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