você pode usar xargs .
por exemplo: a entrada - input.txt
1
2
3
4
O comando para executar command.sh
#/bin/bash
echo $1: start
date
sleep 2s
echo $1 : stop
date
Correndo todos juntos em paralelo:
➜ /tmp cat input.txt| xargs -n 1 -P 4 ./command.sh
1: start
3: start
2: start
4: start
Tue May 19 19:03:30 IDT 2015
Tue May 19 19:03:30 IDT 2015
Tue May 19 19:03:30 IDT 2015
Tue May 19 19:03:30 IDT 2015
1 : stop
4 : stop
3 : stop
2 : stop
Tue May 19 19:03:32 IDT 2015
Tue May 19 19:03:32 IDT 2015
Tue May 19 19:03:32 IDT 2015
Tue May 19 19:03:32 IDT 2015