Para

A command-line tool for parallel execution of shell commands in multiple directories.

How to use it?

These instructions will show you how to install para on your local machine and how to work with it.

Prerequisites

In order to install para the following software is needed:

git
composer

Installing

To install para you can choose one of the following methods.

Standalone (Recommended)

This is the easiest way to install para on your local machine.
Just copy the following command-line and paste it into your terminal to run the automatic install script.

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lrackwitz/para/master/tools/install.sh | sh

As composer package

This will install para into your global composer vendor folder.

composer global require lrackwitz/para

Manually

Follow these instructions if you want to install para manually:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/rackberg/para --branch <release-tag> <para-install-directory>

# Change to the install directory of para
cd <para-install-directory>

# Install the composer managed dependencies
composer install

# Create a symlink
ln -s <para-install-directory>/bin/para /usr/local/bin/para

If para has been installed correctly you should get the installed version by entering the following command:

para --version

Configuring

Before you can use para you need at least to add the directories you want para to manage. This can be done by executing the following command:

para add:project <project_name> <project_path> [<group_name>] [--foreground_color=<color>] [--background_color=<color>]

Arguments:

• The value of the argument project_name should be a unique single word to identify the directory you want to add.
• The value of the argument project_path should be the absolute path of the directory you want to manage.
• The value of the optional argument group_name should be a unique single word to identify a group of projects. The default value is default.

Example

para add:project project1 /opt/my_first_project my_group --foreground_color=222
para add:project project2 /Users/user/second_project my_group --foreground_color=104
para add:project project3 /Users/user/third_project my_group --foreground_color=129
para add:project project4 /tmp/my_fourth_project --foreground_color=93 

This will result in two groups called my_group and default.
The group my_group will contain project1, project2 and project3.
The group default will contain only project4.

color: To see which color code you can choose execute the script tools/colortable.sh

To see the current configuration enter this command:

para config

Executing a command in multiple directories (para projects) at the same time

The following example shows what you need to do to let para execute a shell command in every project configured for a specific group.

Open the para shell for a configured project group.

para open:shell [options] [--] <group>

Example

para open:shell my_group

And execute any shell command you like.

echo "foo"

After pressing enter the shell will output something like this:

project1:   foo
project2:   foo
project3:   foo

You can continue entering more shell commands or type exit to leave the para shell.

Example

Imagine project1, project2 and project3 have a composer.json file. We changed something in the composer.json of project2 and want to sync the changes to project1 and project3.

para sync project2 composer.json project3, project1

Showing a log by para project

Every command you execute in the interactive para shell will be logged. Enter the following command to see which commands you've executed and what the output was.

para show:log <project>

Example

Show the log of para project project2.

para show:log project2

Extending the functionality with your own code

To extend the functionality of para with your own code, you simply need to create a new composer package. The type in the composer.json needs to be para-plugin.

See the example composer.json file:

{
    "name": "vendor/para-plugin-name",
    "description": "An example para plugin",
    "type": "para-plugin",
    "require-dev": {
        "lrackwitz/para": "^2.0"
    }
}

Get a list of available para plugins

para plugins:available

Installing a custom para plugin

para install vendor/para-plugin-name

Uninstalling a plugin

para uninstall vendor/para-plugin-name

Get a list of installed plugins

para installed

If everything worked, you can now use the extended functionality of your custom para plugin when executing para as usual.

Synchronization of files within para projects

In order to be able to synchronize files within para projects you need to install the para-sync plugin.

para install lrackwitz/para-sync

The code of the para plugin is here: https://github.com/rackberg/para-sync

Contributing

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for details on the code of conduct, and the process for creating issues or submitting pull requests.

Versioning

This project uses SemVer for versioning. For the versions available, see the tags on this repository.

Have a look at the CHANGELOG.md.

Authors

• Lars Rosenberg - Initial work - Para

Credits

I want to say thank you to comm-press GmbH for supporting me developing para.

License

This project is licensed under the GPL-3.0-or-later License - see the LICENSE.md file for details.