linux xargs

linux xargs

About xargs

Build and execute command lines from standard input.

Syntax

xargs [-0prtx] [-e[eof-str]] [-i[replace-str]] [-l[max-lines]] [-n max-args] [-s max-chars] [-P max-procs] [--null] [--eof[=eof-str]] [--replace[=replace-str]] [--max-lines[=max-lines]] [--interactive] [--max-chars=max-chars] [--verbose] [--exit] [--max-procs=max-procs] [--max-args=max-args] [--no-run-if-empty] [--version] [--help] [command [initial-argu-ments]]

--null, -0     Input filenames are terminated by a null character instead of by whitespace, and the quotes and backslash are not special (every character is taken literally). Disables the end of file string, which is treated like any other argument. Useful when arguments might contain white space, quote marks, or backslashes. The GNU find -print0 option produces input suitable for this mode.

--eof[=eof-str], -e[eof-str]     Set the end of file string to eof-str. If the end of file string occurs as a line of input, the rest of the input is ignored. If eof-str is omitted, there is no end of file string. If this option is not given, the end of file string defaults to "_".

--help     Print a summary of the options to xargs and exit.

--replace[=replace-str], -i[replace-str]     Replace occurences of replace-str in the initial arguments with names read from standard input. Also, unquoted blanks do not terminate arguments. If replace-str is omitted, it defaults to "{}" (like for `find -exec'). Implies -x and -l 1.

--max-lines[=max-lines], -l[max-lines]     Use at most max-lines nonblank input lines per command line; max-lines defaults to 1 if omitted. Trailing blanks cause an input line to be logically continued on the next input line. Implies -x.

--max-args=max-args, -n max-args     Use at most max-args arguments per command line. Fewer than max-args arguments will be used if the size (see the -s option) is exceeded, unless the -x option is given, in which case xargs will exit.

--interactive, -p     Prompt the user about whether to run each command line and read a line from the terminal. Only run the command line if the response starts with `y' or `Y'. Implies -t.

--no-run-if-empty, -r     If the standard input does not contain any nonblanks, do not run the command. Normally, the command is run once even if there is no input.

--max-chars=max-chars, -s max-chars     Use at most max-chars characters per command line, including the command and initial arguments and the terminating nulls at the ends of the argument strings. The default is as large as possible, up to 20k characters.

--verbose, -t     Print the command line on the standard error output before executing it.

--version     Print the version number of xargs and exit.

--exit, -x     Exit if the size (see the -s option) is exceeded.

--max-procs=max-procs, -P max-procs     Run up to max-procs processes at a time; the default is 1. If max-procs is 0, xargs will run as many processes as possible at a time. Use the -n option with -P; otherwise chances are that only one exec will be done.

Examples

    find . -type f -mtime -1 -print | xargs pr -n

    Find any files that have a modified time of 1 day and print the contents of each of those files.

    find Members/ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 grep "examplestring"

    In the above example the find command finds all files in the Members directory each file that is found is then searched using grep for the text "examplestring".