#1100780 moreutils: Please add --version command-line option to parallel

Package:
moreutils
Source:
moreutils
Description:
additional Unix utilities
Submitter:
Timur Tabi
Date:
2025-03-26 17:42:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1100780#5
Date:
2025-03-18 15:24:51 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***

To help improve co-existence with the GNU version of parallel, please add
support for the --version command.

Please make sure it does NOT print the string "GNU parallel", since moreutils
parallel is not a drop-in replacement for GNU parallel, and there are scripts
out there that depend on this.
#1100780#10
Date:
2025-03-26 10:43:28 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Timur,
...

thanks for your suggestion.  I think it is a good idea, but I am afraid
we have to find another way for identifying the origin of parallel.
moreutils' parallel only supports short options (getopt(3)) and upstream
currently only accepts real bug fixes.

As Debian policy has been made even clearer about non-drop-in
replacements, I am planning to ship moreutils' parallel as
/usr/bin/parallel.moreutils out-of-the box; and perhaps a symlink like
/usr/bin/mparallel for convinience.

But as this will take quite some time until it reaches your Ubuntu(?)
system, what about this?

	parallel -h | grep -qe "GNU parallel"

(exit code 0 for GNU parallel)

Or even

	if parallel --version >/dev/null 2>&1; then
		# GNU parallel
		:
	else
		# moreutils parallel
		:
	fi
?

Kind regards,
Nicolas
#1100780#15
Date:
2025-03-26 10:43:28 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Timur,
...

thanks for your suggestion.  I think it is a good idea, but I am afraid
we have to find another way for identifying the origin of parallel.
moreutils' parallel only supports short options (getopt(3)) and upstream
currently only accepts real bug fixes.

As Debian policy has been made even clearer about non-drop-in
replacements, I am planning to ship moreutils' parallel as
/usr/bin/parallel.moreutils out-of-the box; and perhaps a symlink like
/usr/bin/mparallel for convinience.

But as this will take quite some time until it reaches your Ubuntu(?)
system, what about this?

	parallel -h | grep -qe "GNU parallel"

(exit code 0 for GNU parallel)

Or even

	if parallel --version >/dev/null 2>&1; then
		# GNU parallel
		:
	else
		# moreutils parallel
		:
	fi
?

Kind regards,
Nicolas
#1100780#20
Date:
2025-03-26 13:51:48 UTC
From:
To:
In that case, you might as well just close this bug as WONTFIX.

I have already updated the script to handle the fact that moreutils
parallel does not support --version.  This bug report was merely a
suggestion to help align the two versions of parallel for other people.
#1100780#25
Date:
2025-03-26 13:51:48 UTC
From:
To:
In that case, you might as well just close this bug as WONTFIX.

I have already updated the script to handle the fact that moreutils
parallel does not support --version.  This bug report was merely a
suggestion to help align the two versions of parallel for other people.
#1100780#30
Date:
2025-03-26 17:30:23 UTC
From:
To:
Control: tag -1 wontfix
...

ok.  Nevertheless, thanks for the report!

Kind regards,
Nicolas
#1100780#37
Date:
2025-03-26 17:30:23 UTC
From:
To:
Control: tag -1 wontfix
...

ok.  Nevertheless, thanks for the report!

Kind regards,
Nicolas