Note that pbzip2 can only parallel-decompress files that are compressed with pbzip2. lbzip2 (https://lbzip2.org/ https://lbzip2.org/) is capable of decompressin

Note that pbzip2 can only parallel-decompress files that are compressed with pbzip2. lbzip2 (https://lbzip2.org/ https://lbzip2.org/) is capable of decompressing arbitrary bz2 files in parallel, which is a more common need IMHO. bz2 is very CPU- and RAM-intensive, but gives the best ratios of any mainstream algorithm, so it's really only useful for publicly distributed files where bandwidth considerations dominate.