If each process takes up very little resources, then the overhead of creating them will cause it all to go slower.

If the bottleneck is network or memory, then extra processes won't help.

If the bottleneck is CPU, then the processes will let you use more cores, so that will help to a point. You probably don't have 30 cores, so a smaller number of them doing more work each would be better.

If you've got a healthy mix of resources, then a second process could help, allowing one to crunch numbers while the other waits for the disk and then vice versa.

Like so many things in life, one is good, a few more are convenient, but too much will kill you.


In reply to Re^4: unix loops in perl by SuicideJunkie
in thread unix loops in perl by a217

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.