Multithreading in Bash

I would to introduce multithreading feature in my shell script.

I have a script which calls the function read_cfg() with different arguments. Each of these function calls are independent.

Would it be possible to instantiate these function calls (not scripts) parallelly. Please let me how can we achieve that.. ?

From stackoverflow

• Sure, just add & after the command:

  read_cfg cfgA &
  read_cfg cfgB &
  read_cfg cfgC &
  wait
  

  all those jobs will then run in the background simultaneously. The optional wait command will then wait for all the jobs to finish.

  Each command will run in a separate process, so it's technically not "multithreading", but I believe it solves your problem.

  TomTom : You should read up the difference between process and thread. What you propose is not multithreading - it involves separate processes for every command.

  Martin : @TomTom: I certainly know the difference between processes and threads. If you see through the OP's choice of words, I believe he is simply asking whether it's possible to run the commands in parallel (which is possible). I added a note about this to clarify.

  Kiran : Thanks martin, I was not aware that I could add a & operator to a function as well.. Thanks for helping me. Kiran

• Bash job control involves multiple processes, not multiple threads.

  You can execute a command in background with the & suffix.

  You can wait for completion of a background command with the wait command.

  You can execute multiple commands in parallel by separating them with |. This provides also a synchronization mechanism, since stdout of a command at left of | is connected to stdin of command at right.