NAME

xargs - construct argument list(s) and execute utility

SYNOPSIS

xargs [-0t] [-n num] [-L num] [-s size] [-I repl] [prog [args ...]]

DESCRIPTION

xargs runs a specified program, or the echo command if none is given. Arguments passed to the target program are read from standard input and are generally separated by spaces. The program is run repeatedly until all arguments have been used up. The number of arguments taken by each invocation of the program can be controlled with various options.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported:

-0

Expect NUL characters as separators instead of spaces. This is useful in cases where arguments may contain a space, e.g. a filename.

-I replstr

Read input one line at a time, replacing all occurrences of the string replstr in the initial arguments with the line read.

-L NUMBER

Pass a maximum NUMBER of non-empty lines to the program per invocation.

-n NUMBER

Set a maximum NUMBER of arguments to be passed to the program per invocation.

-s SIZE

Pass a maximum of SIZE bytes of arguments to the program per invocation.

-t

Write a listing of the command arguments to standard error before each invocation of the program.

AUTHOR

Written by Gurusamy Sarathy, gsar@umich.edu