How do you run multiple programs in parallel from a bash script?

Question

I am trying to write a .sh file that runs many programs simultaneously

I tried this

prog1 
prog2

Answer 1

prog1 &
prog2 &

Answer 2

You can try ppss. ppss is rather powerful - you can even create a mini-cluster. xargs -P can also be useful if you've got a batch of embarrassingly parallel processing to do.

Answer 3

With GNU Parallel http://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/ it is as easy as:

(echo prog1; echo prog2) | parallel

Or if you prefer:

parallel ::: prog1 prog2

Learn more:

• Watch the intro video for a quick introduction: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL284C9FF2488BC6D1
• Walk through the tutorial (man parallel_tutorial). Your command line will love you for it.
• Read: Ole Tange, GNU Parallel 2018 (Ole Tange, 2018).