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xargs

all

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 pieces on spaces, tabs, newlines, and end-of-file. See also: `parallel`.

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Options (5)

-0, --nullboolean

Gzip all files with `.log` extension taking advantage of multiple threads (`-print0` uses a null character to split file names and `--null` uses it as delimiter)

Example: find . -name '*.log' -print0 | xargs {{[-0|--null]}} {{[-P|--max-procs]}} {{4}} {{[-n|--max-args]}} 1 gzip

-P, --max-procsboolean

Gzip all files with `.log` extension taking advantage of multiple threads (`-print0` uses a null character to split file names and `--null` uses it as delimiter)

Example: find . -name '*.log' -print0 | xargs {{[-0|--null]}} {{[-P|--max-procs]}} {{4}} {{[-n|--max-args]}} 1 gzip

-n, --max-argsboolean

Gzip all files with `.log` extension taking advantage of multiple threads (`-print0` uses a null character to split file names and `--null` uses it as delimiter)

Example: find . -name '*.log' -print0 | xargs {{[-0|--null]}} {{[-P|--max-procs]}} {{4}} {{[-n|--max-args]}} 1 gzip

-p, --interactiveboolean

Prompt user for confirmation before executing command (confirm with `y` or `Y`)

Example: {{arguments_source}} | xargs {{[-p|--interactive]}} {{command}}

-o, --open-ttyboolean

Allow the command to access the terminal for interactive input

Example: {{arguments_source}} | xargs {{[-o|--open-tty]}} {{command}}

Examples (8)

Run a command using the input data as arguments

arguments_source | xargs command

Run multiple chained commands on the input data

arguments_source | xargs sh -c "command1 && command2 | command3"

Gzip all files with `.log` extension taking advantage of multiple threads (`-print0` uses a null character to split file names and `--null` uses it as delimiter)

find . -name '*.log' -print0 | xargs [-0|--null] [-P|--max-procs] 4 [-n|--max-args] 1 gzip

Execute the command once per argument

arguments_source | xargs [-n|--max-args] 1 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

Parallel runs of 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

arguments_source | xargs [-P|--max-procs] max-procs command

Prompt user for confirmation before executing command (confirm with `y` or `Y`)

arguments_source | xargs [-p|--interactive] command

Allow the command to access the terminal for interactive input

arguments_source | xargs [-o|--open-tty] command

made by @shridhargupta | data from tldr-pages