xargs
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. More information: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/xargs.html.
- 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}}"
- Delete all files with a
.backup
extension (-print0
uses a null character to split file names, and-0
uses it as delimiter):find . -name {{'*.backup'}} -print0 | xargs -0 rm -v
- 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. Ifmax-procs
is 0, xargs will run as many processes as possible at a time:{{arguments_source}} | xargs -P {{max-procs}} {{command}}
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