Re: updating via option to gnu parallel itself

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi Shyam,

On Fri, 15 Apr 2016 19:36:51 -0700
Shyam Saladi <saladi@caltech.edu> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I wonder whether it would be possible/desirable to have an option to update
> gnu parallel via an option to the program, such that it would be possible
> to do the following to retrieve the latest version:
> 
> parallel --update
> 
> Since it's contained in a single perl script and released to a single
> location (with the latest version given by parallel-latest.tar.bz2), this
> might be possible.
> 
> Personally, I download new versions from the ftp archive when they are
> released, so having an update option to parallel itself would be very
> convenient.
> 
> It might be as simple as having `parallel --update` run the following:
> (wget -O - pi.dk/3 || curl pi.dk/3/) | bash
> 

This should be possible to an extent, but I don't think it's desirable. For
once, the "parallel" distribution contains more than one executable and other
files:

«
shlomif@telaviv1:~$ rpm -ql parallel 
/usr/bin/env_parallel
/usr/bin/env_parallel.bash
/usr/bin/env_parallel.fish
/usr/bin/env_parallel.ksh
/usr/bin/env_parallel.zsh
/usr/bin/niceload
/usr/bin/parallel
/usr/bin/sem
/usr/bin/sql
/usr/share/doc/parallel
/usr/share/doc/parallel/NEWS
/usr/share/doc/parallel/README
/usr/share/doc/parallel/env_parallel.html
/usr/share/doc/parallel/env_parallel.pdf
/usr/share/doc/parallel/env_parallel.texi
/usr/share/doc/parallel/niceload.html
/usr/share/doc/parallel/niceload.pdf
/usr/share/doc/parallel/niceload.texi
/usr/share/doc/parallel/parallel.html
/usr/share/doc/parallel/parallel.pdf
/usr/share/doc/parallel/parallel.texi
/usr/share/doc/parallel/parallel_design.html
/usr/share/doc/parallel/parallel_design.pdf
/usr/share/doc/parallel/parallel_design.texi
/usr/share/doc/parallel/parallel_tutorial.html
/usr/share/doc/parallel/parallel_tutorial.pdf
/usr/share/doc/parallel/parallel_tutorial.texi
/usr/share/doc/parallel/sem.html
/usr/share/doc/parallel/sem.pdf
/usr/share/doc/parallel/sem.texi
/usr/share/doc/parallel/sql.html
/usr/share/doc/parallel/sql.pdf
/usr/share/doc/parallel/sql.texi
/usr/share/man/man1/env_parallel.1.xz
/usr/share/man/man1/niceload.1.xz
/usr/share/man/man1/parallel.1.xz
/usr/share/man/man1/sem.1.xz
/usr/share/man/man1/sql.1.xz
/usr/share/man/man7/parallel_design.7.xz
/usr/share/man/man7/parallel_tutorial.7.xz                                      
shlomif@telaviv1:~$                                                             
»

Secondly, parallel is often installed with root ownership and permissions which
would render the update process by an underprivileged user futile. Thirdly, one
can update GNU parallel using the OS/distribution's package manager. Finally,
implementing such a feature reliably may prove to be hard or tricky, and I'd
rather not risk it.

Regards,

        Shlomi Fish


> Thanks,
> Shyam



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