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xargs.man
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XARGS(1L) 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] [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 com-
mand (default is /bin/echo) one or more times with any
initial-arguments followed 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 back-
slash are not special (every character is taken
literally). However, any end of file string is
still recognized. Useful with the GNU find -print0
option when filenames might contain white space,
quote marks, or backslashes.
--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 "_".
--replace[=replace-str], -i[replace-str]
Replace occurences of replace-str in the initial
arguments with names read from standard input. If
replace-str is omitted, it defaults to "{}" (like
for `find -exec'). Implies -x and -l 1.
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XARGS(1L) XARGS(1L)
--max-lines[=max-lines], -l[max-lines]
Use at most max-lines nonblank input lines per com-
mand 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 command line if the response starts with `y' or
`Y'. Implies -t.
--no-run-if-empty, -r
If the standard input does not contain any non-
blanks, do not run the command. Normally, the com-
mand 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. 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.
--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; otherwise chances are that only one
exec will be done.
The long-named options can be introduced with `+' as well
as `--', for compatibility with previous releases. Even-
tually support for `+' will be removed, because it is
incompatible with the POSIX.2 standard.
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