How to run parallel programs in python
<p>I have a python script to run a few external commands using the os.subprocess module. But one of these steps takes a huge time and so I would like to run it separately. I need to launch them, check they are finished and then execute the next command which is not parallel. 
My code is something like this:</p>

<pre><code>nproc = 24 
for i in xrange(nproc):
    #Run program in parallel

#Combine files generated by the parallel step
for i in xrange(nproc):
    handle = open('Niben_%s_structures' % (zfile_name), 'w')
    for i in xrange(nproc):
        for zline in open('Niben_%s_file%d_structures' % (zfile_name,i)):handle.write(zline)
    handle.close()

#Run next step
cmd = 'bowtie-build -f Niben_%s_precursors.fa bowtie-index/Niben_%s_precursors' % (zfile_name,zfile_name)
</code></pre>
