tldr/pages/common/xargs.md
Waldir Pimenta 262b77aaea xargs: rework page to make it more beginner-friendly (#1039)
* xargs: update as agreed on code review.
2016-10-17 23:02:05 +01:00

21 lines
793 B
Markdown

# xargs
> Execute a command with piped arguments coming from another command, a file, etc.
> The input is treated as a single block of text and split into separate arguments on spaces, tabs, newlines and end-of-file.
- Main usage pattern:
`{{arguments_source}} | xargs {{command}}`
- Delete all files with a `.backup` extension:
`{{find . -name '*.backup'}} | xargs {{rm -v}}`
- Convert newlines in the input into NUL (`\0`) characters, and split on those only (useful if the input to xargs contains spaces):
`{{arguments_source}} | tr '\n' '\0' | xargs -0 {{command}}`
- Execute the command once for each input line, replacing any occurrences of the placeholder (here marked as `_`) with the input line:
`{{arguments_source}} | xargs -I _ {{command}} _ {{optional_extra_arguments}}`