Do you mean like: parallel 'sleep {= $_=rand()*10+5; =} ; possibly_flaky {}' ::: {1..5} The {= =} escapes to perl, so you have a full programming language

Do you mean like: parallel 'sleep {= $_=rand()*10+5; =} ; possibly_flaky {}' ::: {1..5} The {= =} escapes to perl, so you have a full programming language available.