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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
215 will run as many processes as possible.
217 Echo each command to be executed and ask the user whether it should be
219 An affirmative response,
222 causes the command to be executed, any other response causes it to be
224 No commands are executed if the process is not attached to a terminal.
226 Compatibility with GNU
232 argument at least once, even if
234 input is empty, and it supports a
236 option to inhibit this behavior.
243 argument on empty input, but it supports the
245 option for command-line compatibility with GNU
249 option does nothing in the
253 .It Fl R Ar replacements
254 Specify the maximum number of arguments that
256 will do replacement in.
259 is negative, the number of arguments in which to replace is unbounded.
261 Specify the amount of space (in bytes) that
263 can use for replacements.
268 Set the maximum number of bytes for the command line length provided to
270 The sum of the length of the utility name, the arguments passed to
274 terminators) and the current environment will be less than or equal to
276 The current default value for
282 Echo the command to be executed to standard error immediately before it
287 to terminate immediately if a command line containing
289 arguments will not fit in the specified (or default) command line length.
298 Undefined behavior may occur if
300 reads from the standard input.
302 If a command line cannot be assembled, or
303 cannot be invoked, or if an invocation of
305 is terminated by a signal,
308 exits with a value of 255, the
310 utility stops processing input and exits after all invocations of
316 utility exits with a value of 0 if no error occurs.
321 exits with a value of 127, otherwise if
325 exits with a value of 126.
326 If any other error occurs,
328 exits with a value of 1.
336 utility is expected to be
343 options are non-standard
345 extensions which may not be available on other operating systems.
349 utility appeared in PWB UNIX.
353 attempts to invoke another command such that the number of arguments or the
354 size of the environment is increased, it risks
361 utility does not take multibyte characters into account when performing
362 string comparisons for the
366 options, which may lead to incorrect results in some locales.