This is a simple function to count and manage processes in bash. A crappy homage to Parallel::ForkManager. Yes, anybody could have done it--I know I have several times--so I figured it would be best to standardize.

To use, you have to either source spork-manager.sh or copy and paste the spork function at the top of your script.

Usage:

spork <new/start/end/cleanup> <spork name> <number of concurrent threads / max>

Commands:

• new - starts a new spork with a defined number of slots.
• next - iterates spork
• finish - ends that iteration
• wait - suspends the script until the named spork is finished
• cleanup - removes instances of the named spork. This is automatically done by finish when the count reaches 0, but this is here nonetheless. Using "all" as a name removes all trace of all sporks.

Example:

for i in bad*.txt; do 
    spork new MYSPORK max 
        (   spork next MYSPORK
            grep -v "donutbrew" $i > scrub_$i
            rm -f $i
            spork end MYSPORK
        ) &
	
done
spork wait MYSPORK

Note that the spork has to be created outside a subshell, but the next, the code, and the finish func must be contained in a subshell and should be backgrounded (a limitation of shell). This means that any variables changed will not propogate to the main script. I might think of a way to do that later, but fo now, treat it like a subshell.

To do:

1. Decide whether to impose a global maximum based on available cores.
2. Stuff and thangs...