Re: [PATCH] core-count: A new program to count the number of cpu cores

[Paolo Bonzini]

On 10/27/2009 11:55 AM, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> > >     $ md5sum --threads A B
> > >     abcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcd B
> > >     12341234123412341234123412341234 A
>
> Grr. An argument for_not_  splitting.

It is indeed that way.

In http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2009-10/msg00179.html 
you say:

> Now it's a different story if the data within a file
> could be processed in parallel. I.E. if the digest
> algorithms themselves could be parallelized.

And indeed in this case the decision would be a no-brainer.  That is the 
case for sort, for example.

Maybe we want a --parallel option (too bad -p is taken) for xargs that 
forces the creation of the number of processes passed with -P or taken 
from nproc (for example by starting "md5sum $1 $5 $9 ...", "md5sum $2 $6 
$10 ...", etc.)?

That would be an interesting alternative to this core-count proposal...

Paolo