xargs

Name

xargs -- build and execute command lines from standard input

Description

xargs is as specified in the SUS but with differences as listed below.

LSB Deprecated Differences

The behaviors specified in this section are expected to disappear from a future version of the LSB; applications should only use the non-LSB-deprecated behaviors.

--null, -0

terminates input filenames by a null character instead of by whitespace, and the quotes and backslash are not special (every character is taken literally). Disables the end of file string, which is treated like any other argument. Useful when arguments might contain white space, quote marks, or backslashes. The GNU find -print0 option produces input suitable for this mode.

--eof[=eof-str]

is equivalent to -e.

-E

has implementation-dependent behavior.

--replace[=replace-str]

uses FORMAT as the format string that controls the output of time.

-I

has implementation-dependent behavior.

--max-lines[=max-lines]

is equivalent to -l.

-L

has implementation-dependent behavior.

--max-args=max-args

is equivalent to -n.

--interactive

is equivalent to -p.

--no-run-if-empty, -r

does not run this command if the standard input does not contain any nonblanks. Normally, the command is run once even if there is no input.

--max-chars

is equivalent to -s.

--verbose

is equivalent to -t.

--version

Prints the version number of xargs and exits.

--exit

is equivalent to -x.

--max-procs=max-procs, -P max-procs

runs 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.