Re: Ubuntu provides an older version of parallel - suggestion to retrofit my usage?

[John]

> From man parallel:

> 
>        Your bug report should always include:
> 
>        · The error message you get (if any).
> 
> You failed to do that.

You are right.  Initially there was no message, but I see that the script 
redirects the output to /dev/null so I removed the redirect and I get:

parallel: Input is read from the terminal. Only experts do this on purpose. 
Press CTRL-D to exit.


> I understand that you cannot use a newer version as you cannot expect
> your users to install the newer version. But you fail to mention if
> the problem disappears if you yourself install a newer version and if
> so: at which version does the problem disappear. Also you fail to
> mention if you have asked Ubuntu to upgrade their repositories to a
> newer version.


I have not opened an bug against the Ubuntu package because I do not know what 
is wrong with it.  I was hoping you could give me some direction.  Please read 
on :)

> P.S: Did you read the first section in

> http://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/man.html#options


Yes, I did.  What specifically are you hinting to there?

> It will also help troubleshooting if you can reproduce the error on a
> smaller example; your script seems to do a lot more than just showing
> the problem.
> 
> ::: and -k are both in 20120422, so that is not the problem.


You are correct; I was too hasty in my post to the ML.  I can confirm that if I 
compile 20120422 from source on the Ubuntu box, everything works as expected so 
the problem is not with your code!

Using the Ubuntu provided parallel-20120422:

$ profile-cleaner f
profile-cleaner v1.98

 Cleaning profile for firefox
parallel: Input is read from the terminal. Only experts do this on purpose. 
Press CTRL-D to exit.
<<< Here it just hangs >>>

If I remove the repo package and compile parallel v20120422 from source, 
everything works as it should

$ cd parallel-20120422
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr

$ make 
$ sudo make install

$ parallel --version

GNU parallel 20120422

$ profile-cleaner f
profile-cleaner v1.98

 Cleaning profile for firefox
 Cleaning cookies.sqlite                       done  -.37 Mbytes
 Cleaning content-prefs.sqlite                 done  -0 Mbytes
 Cleaning webappsstore.sqlite                  done  -0 Mbytes
 Cleaning extensions.sqlite                    done  -0 Mbytes
 Cleaning formhistory.sqlite                   done  -0 Mbytes
 Cleaning downloads.sqlite                     done  -0 Mbytes
 Cleaning permissions.sqlite                   done  -0 Mbytes
 Cleaning signons.sqlite                       done  -0 Mbytes
 Cleaning places.sqlite                        done  -8.87 Mbytes

 Profile(s) for firefox reduced by 9.25 Mbytes.