NAME
xargs - construct argument list(s) and execute utility.
SYNOPSIS
xargs [-ft0] [[-x] -n number] [-s size] [utility [argument
...]]
DESCRIPTION
The xargs utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file
delimited arguments from the standard input and executes the
specified utility with them as arguments.
The utility and any arguments specified on the command line
are given to the utility upon each invocation, followed by
some number of the arguments read from standard input. The
utility is repeatedly executed until standard input is
exhausted.
Spaces, tabs and newlines may be embedded in arguments using
single (`` ' '') or double (``"'') quotes or backslashes
(``\''). Single quotes escape all non-single quote charac-
ters, excluding newlines, up to the matching single quote.
Double quotes escape all non-double quote characters,
excluding newlines, up to the matching double quote. Any
single character, including newlines, may be escaped by a
backslash.
The options are as follows:
-f Force xargs to ignore the exit status returned by util-
ity. By default, xargs will exit immediately if util-
ity exits with a non-zero exit status. This does not
include ignoring utility exiting due to a signal or
without calling exit(2).
-n number
Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard
input for each invocation of the utility. An invoca-
tion of utility will use less than number standard
input arguments if the number of bytes accumulated (see
the -s option) exceeds the specified size or there are
fewer than number arguments remaining for the last
invocation of utility. The current default value for
number is 5000.
-s size
Set the maximum number of bytes for the command line
length provided to utility. The sum of the length of
the utility name and the arguments passed to utility
(including NULL terminators) will be less than or equal
to this number. The current default value for size is
ARG_MAX - 2048.
-t Echo the command to be executed to standard error
immediately before it is executed.
-x Force xargs to terminate immediately if a command line
containing number arguments will not fit in the speci-
fied (or default) command line length.
-0 Read null-byte terminated pathnames from standard input
as may have been produced by the -print0 option of
find(1). This is a MINIX 3 specific extension to
xargs.
If no utility is specified, echo(1) is used.
Undefined behavior may occur if utility reads from the stan-
dard input.
Xargs exits with an exit status of 0 if no error occurs. If
utility cannot be invoked, is terminated by a signal or ter-
minates without calling exit(2), xargs exits with an exit
status of 127. If utility exits with an exit status other
than 0, xargs exits with that exit status. Otherwise, xargs
exits with an exit status of 1.
SEE ALSO
echo(1), find(1).
STANDARDS
The xargs utility is expected to be POSIX 1003.2 compliant.