Hi, I'm just wondering what the current state is and what the future is for GNU utils like grep, sed, etc. when it comes to multi-processing. Thanks, ben

Exactly what do you mean by "multi-processin"? Multithreads, parallel, SMP, etc.??

Anything. I've never seen grep use more than 100% CPU on my 4 processor SMP box for instance. Maybe there is some flag I don't know about? I guess my question is, are people expecting them to become anything but serial in the near future, or is that too much of an edge case?

Mmm, I see. Good question. Maybe try the Gnu forum? http://www.nabble.com/Gnu-f1458.html It is possible to use Bash scripts to divide tasks and run the bits simultaneously on multiple CPUs. I call this "poor man's parallelism". I've done it with some of my own programs, but it should be possible with utility programs. But as to whether they are planning to enable the programs themselves to run on multiple CPUs, I don't know. Given multicores, and the growing popularity of SMP machines, it seems that it would be a good idea.