Simulating parallel process execution in

Linux Bash
Introduction

The default behavior of the bash shell and the Linux operating system is to execute typed
commands sequentially in serial order. So, when we type multiple commands on the
terminal prompt and chain them using semicolons then the shell would first execute one
command, wait for it to finish execution and then execute the next command and so on.
This sequential or serial behavior is fine for most scenarios but sometimes we may have the
need to execute commands in a parallel fashion. The general requirement for parallel
command execution arises from the necessity to save time i.e. do more in less time.
Currently, there are many automation tools and utilities available that allow users to
perform tasks parallel on the same system or across different systems.

But what if we want to accomplish parallel task execution without installing any additional
tools?

By starting multiple processes in background appending the ampersand character (“&”) to

the end of your commands, we can simulate the startup of multiple processes in parallel on
the command line. Although this approach is not perfect but could suffice when we need to
fire numerous commands in parallel on the same or different machines. The main
alternative to running a process in the foreground is to allow it to execute in the
background. A background process is associated with the specific terminal that started it
but does not block access to the shell. Instead, it executes in the background, leaving the
user able to interact with the system while the command runs. Because of the way that a
foreground process interacts with its terminal, there can be only a single foreground process
for every terminal window. Because background processes return control to the shell
immediately without waiting for the process to complete, many background processes can
run at the same time.

In this article, we will demonstrate how to execute multiple programs or jobs

simultaneously thereby giving the impression of parallel process/task execution.

Running tasks in parallel on the same system:

To demonstrate this, let’s execute the ping command and send ICMP ping packets to two
hosts simultaneously. We’ll execute the following command.

[sahil@linuxnix:~] $ ping -c 2 google.com & ping -c2 linuxnix.com &

[2] 17422
[3] 17423
[sahil@linuxnix:~] $ PING google.com (216.58.218.110) 56(84) bytes of
data.
64 bytes from dfw25s07-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.218.110): icmp_seq=1
ttl=51 time=19.1 ms
PING linuxnix.com (104.28.4.110) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from dfw25s07-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.218.110): icmp_seq=2
ttl=51 time=19.0 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---

2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1021ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 19.091/19.111/19.131/0.020 ms
64 bytes from 104.28.4.110: icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=18.7 ms
64 bytes from 104.28.4.110: icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=18.8 ms

--- linuxnix.com ping statistics ---

2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1263ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 18.753/18.777/18.801/0.024 ms

[2]- Done ping -c 2 google.com

[3]+ Done ping -c2 linuxnix.com

Once we press the enter key after typing the commands, we first see the process IDs of the
processes being generated by the execution of the commands. Next we see the output of the
commands and finally, we get notified that the commands have completed execution.

Running tasks in parallel across different systems using SSH:

If we could execute tasks in parallel over SSH across different systems then that could
really help us save a lot of time. In the below example, we demonstrate how to
simultaneously start two SSH connections in the background thereby giving the impression
of parallel command line execution.

[ssuri@uslinuxnix01:~] $ ssh uslinuxnix02 -q "uname -a;date;exit" >>

abc.txt & ssh uslinuxnix05 -q "uname -a;date;exit" >> abc.txt &
[1] 21233
[2] 21234
[ssuri@uslinuxnix01:~] $
[1]- Done ssh uslinuxnix02 -q "uname -a;date;exit" >> abc.txt
[2]+ Done ssh uslinuxnix05 -q "uname -a;date;exit" >> abc.txt
[ssuri@uslinuxnix01:~] $ cat abc.txt
Linux uslinuxnix05.example.org 2.6.32-696.6.3.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Jun
30 13:24:18 EDT 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Tue Feb 20 06:59:14 UTC 2018
Linux uslinuxnix02.dev.example.org 3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Sat
Sep 9 03:55:24 EDT 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Tue Feb 20 06:59:14 UTC 2018

We included the date command in the above example to further illustrate that both
commands get executed over separate SSH connections at the same time in parallel.

Conclusion

This concludes our demonstration of simulating parallel process execution in Linux by

putting processes in the background by appending the ampersand character after the
command. We hope that you’ve found this article to be useful and we look forward towards
your feedback.