XARGS(1L) UNIX Programmer's Manual XARGS(1L)NAME
xargs - build and execute command lines from standard input
SYNOPSIS
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-arguments]]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the GNU version of xargs. xargs
reads arguments from the standard input, delimited by blanks
(which can be protected with double or single quotes or a
backslash) or newlines, and executes the command (default is
/bin/echo) one or more times with any initial-arguments fol-
lowed by arguments read from standard input. Blank lines on
the standard input are ignored.
xargs exits with the following status:
0 if it succeeds
123 if any invocation of the command exited with status 1-125
124 if the command exited with status 255
125 if the command is killed by a signal
126 if the command cannot be run
127 if the command is not found
1 if some other error occurred.
OPTIONS
--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 con-
tain 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.
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--replace[=replace-str], -i[replace-str]
Replace occurences of replace-str in the initial argu-
ments 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 com-
mand 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 charac-
ters.
--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; oth-
erwise chances are that only one exec will be done.
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XARGS(1L) UNIX Programmer's Manual XARGS(1L)SEE ALSOfind(1L), locate(1L), locatedb(5L), updatedb(1) Finding
Files (on-line in Info, or printed)
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