Looping command line program

Question

I have many files that I want to process with a software that run via command line. Every execution will take around 8 hours, so I want to automate this process.

How can I make a script that automate this? I imagine the algorithm is like: call the command to process file 1, wait until it finish, call the command to process file 2, etc. It is like a queue. I can write in shell script, python, or java.

Answer 1

Using bash by default one command doesn't start until the first one finishes so you can use:

/path/to/command /path/to/file1
/path/to/command /path/to/file2
/path/to/command /path/to/file3

Put the commands in a script called for example ~/run-all-commands. Then mark it as executable using:

chmod +x ~/run-all-commands

Then call the bash script with batch of commands using:

~/run-all-commands

Answer 2

make ls to get a list of your folders.

write a script and call it script arguments with the arguments being your folders.

the script does this:

sp = $(pwd)

for i in $@
do
  cd $i
  cp ../command .
  ./command
  cd $sp
done

I'm assuming command is a local script itself. If its something in ~/bin or /bin you can just call it like any other.