Why does parallel doesn't work using '{}' but '--'?

Question

Following the man pages and other examples the following should work:

$ find  *.gz | parallel zgrep pattern {}

but it results in:

/bin/zgrep: line 161: 1: missing pattern; try `/bin/zgrep --help' for help
/bin/bash: pattern: command not found
/bin/bash: {}: command not found

while substituting the '{}' with '--' works fine:

$ find  *.gz | parallel zgrep pattern  --

Why is this? (using GNU parallel 20121122 and GNU parallel 20130922)

Don't you get: parallel: Warning: YOU ARE USING --tollef. IF THINGS ARE ACTING WEIRD USE --gnu. parallel: Warning: --tollef is obsolete and will be retired 20140222. parallel: Warning: See: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/parallel/2013-02/msg00018.html — Ole Tange, Feb 20 '15 at 17:47
I don't get this message when invoking the man page examples but when I invoke parallel --version (which by coincidence I did at some point).Anyway, great tool, thx! — dr0i, Feb 25 '15 at 13:44

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 20 '15 at 15:42

1

Solved this by coincidence: one has to use parallel --gnu to make the examples of the man pages work. Dooh!

edited Feb 20 '15 at 15:42

A.D.

answered Feb 20 '15 at 15:22

dr0i

1 Answers1