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32 .\" @(#)xargs.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
34 .\" $xMach: xargs.1,v 1.2 2002/02/23 05:23:37 tim Exp $
41 .Nd "construct argument list(s) and execute utility"
48 .Op Fl R Ar replacements
59 .Op Ar utility Op Ar argument ...
63 utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file delimited strings
64 from the standard input and executes
69 Any arguments specified on the command line are given to
71 upon each invocation, followed by some number of the arguments read
72 from the standard input of
74 This is repeated until standard input is exhausted.
76 Spaces, tabs and newlines may be embedded in arguments using single
78 or double (``"'') quotes or backslashes (``\e'').
79 Single quotes escape all non-single quote characters, excluding newlines,
80 up to the matching single quote.
81 Double quotes escape all non-double quote characters, excluding newlines,
82 up to the matching double quote.
83 Any single character, including newlines, may be escaped by a backslash.
85 The options are as follows:
86 .Bl -tag -width indent
92 characters as separators, instead of spaces and newlines.
93 This is expected to be used in concert with the
100 as a logical EOF marker.
104 for each input line, replacing one or more occurrences of
110 flag is specified) arguments to
112 with the entire line of input.
113 The resulting arguments, after replacement is done, will not be allowed to grow
119 bytes; this is implemented by concatenating as much of the argument
122 as possible, to the constructed arguments to
127 The size limit does not apply to arguments to
131 and furthermore, no replacement will be done on
137 If this option is specified,
139 will use the data read from standard input to replace the first occurrence of
141 instead of appending that data after all other arguments.
142 This option will not affect how many arguments will be read from input
144 or the size of the command(s)
148 The option just moves where those arguments will be placed in the command(s)
152 must show up as a distinct
156 It will not be recognized if, for instance, it is in the middle of a
158 Furthermore, only the first occurrence of the
161 For example, the following command will copy the list of files and
162 directories which start with an uppercase letter in the current
166 .Dl /bin/ls -1d [A-Z]* | xargs -J % cp -Rp % destdir
174 If EOF is reached and fewer lines have been read than
178 will be called with the available lines.
180 Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for each
187 standard input arguments if the number of bytes accumulated (see the
189 option) exceeds the specified
191 or there are fewer than
193 arguments remaining for the last invocation of
195 The current default value for
201 in the child process before executing the command.
202 This is useful if you want
204 to run an interactive application.
206 Parallel mode: run at most
212 Echo each command to be executed and ask the user whether it should be
214 An affirmative response,
217 causes the command to be executed, any other response causes it to be
219 No commands are executed if the process is not attached to a terminal.
221 Compatibility with GNU
227 argument at least once, even if
229 input is empty, and it supports a
231 option to inhibit this behavior.
238 argument on empty input, but it supports the
240 option for command-line compatibility with GNU
244 option does nothing in the
248 .It Fl R Ar replacements
249 Specify the maximum number of arguments that
251 will do replacement in.
254 is negative, the number of arguments in which to replace is unbounded.
256 Specify the amount of space (in bytes) that
258 can use for replacements.
263 Set the maximum number of bytes for the command line length provided to
265 The sum of the length of the utility name, the arguments passed to
269 terminators) and the current environment will be less than or equal to
271 The current default value for
277 Echo the command to be executed to standard error immediately before it
282 to terminate immediately if a command line containing
284 arguments will not fit in the specified (or default) command line length.
293 Undefined behavior may occur if
295 reads from the standard input.
299 utility exits immediately (without processing any further input) if a
300 command line cannot be assembled,
302 cannot be invoked, an invocation of
304 is terminated by a signal,
307 exits with a value of 255.
311 utility exits with a value of 0 if no error occurs.
316 exits with a value of 127, otherwise if
320 exits with a value of 126.
321 If any other error occurs,
323 exits with a value of 1.
331 utility is expected to be
338 options are non-standard
340 extensions which may not be available on other operating systems.
344 utility appeared in PWB UNIX.
348 attempts to invoke another command such that the number of arguments or the
349 size of the environment is increased, it risks
356 utility does not take multibyte characters into account when performing
357 string comparisons for the
361 options, which may lead to incorrect results in some locales.