XARGS man page on 4.4BSD

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XARGS(1)		  BSD General Commands Manual		      XARGS(1)

NAME
     xargs — construct argument list(s) and execute utility

SYNOPSIS
     xargs [-t] [[-x] -n number] [-s size] [utility [arguments ...]]

DESCRIPTION
     The xargs utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file delimited
     arguments from the standard input and executes the specified utility with
     them as arguments.

     The utility and any arguments specified on the command line are given to
     the utility upon each invocation, followed by some number of the argu‐
     ments read from standard input.  The utility is repeatedly executed until
     standard input is exhausted.

     Spaces, tabs and newlines may be embedded in arguments using single
     (`` ' '') or double (``"'') quotes or backslashes (``\'').	 Single quotes
     escape all non-single quote characters, excluding newlines, up to the
     matching single quote.  Double quotes escape all non-double quote charac‐
     ters, excluding newlines, up to the matching double quote.	 Any single
     character, including newlines, may be escaped by a backslash.

     The options are as follows:

     -n number
	     Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for
	     each invocation of the utility.  An invocation of utility will
	     use less than number standard input arguments if the number of
	     bytes accumulated (see the -s option) exceeds the specified size
	     or there are fewer than number arguments remaining for the last
	     invocation of utility.  The current default value for number is
	     5000.

     -s size
	     Set the maximum number of bytes for the command line length pro‐
	     vided to utility.	The sum of the length of the utility name and
	     the arguments passed to utility (including NULL terminators) will
	     be less than or equal to this number.  The current default value
	     for size is ARG_MAX - 2048.

     -t	     Echo the command to be executed to standard error immediately
	     before it is executed.

     -x	     Force xargs to terminate immediately if a command line containing
	     number arguments will not fit in the specified (or default) com‐
	     mand line length.

     If no utility is specified, echo(1) is used.

     Undefined behavior may occur if utility reads from the standard input.

     The xargs utility exits immediately (without processing any further
     input) if a command line cannot be assembled, utility cannot be invoked,
     an invocation of the utility is terminated by a signal or an invocation
     of the utility exits with a value of 255.

     The xargs utility exits with a value of 0 if no error occurs.  If utility
     cannot be invoked, xargs exits with a value of 127.  If any other error
     occurs, xargs exits with a value of 1.

SEE ALSO
     echo(1), find(1)

STANDARDS
     The xargs utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compli‐
     ant.

BSD				 June 6, 1993				   BSD
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