Replacing find -exec with parallel: when -exec is fast enough and when xargs -P + -L starts winning

Parallel metal rails or bars in perspective — photo by uppsychic on Pexels

Every shell-scripting tutorial recommends find ... -exec cmd {} \; for “do this command on every matching file.” It’s the classic, obvious pattern. It’s also dramatically slower than the alternatives once your file count goes past a few hundred — …