ppss/whynotxargs.md

Introduction

It is suggested that the command 'xargs' - that is often found on unix-like systems by default - does exactly the same as PPSS does when used with the -p option.

In it's most basic form, this is true to some extend. Xargs processes items and keeps an x number of jobs running in parallel. I think that there may be cases that xargs is sufficient for your task at hand. A simple example that demonstrates how xargs can be used:

$ touch 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

$ ls -1 | xargs -n1 -P 4 sleep

The additional value of PPSS is that it:

• provides logging (for free)
• provides a progress indicator
• is simpler to use (my own opinion)
• does not process items that already have been processed if interrupted.

However, use the tool that best fits the job at hand.