The xargs utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file delimited strings from the standard input and executes utility with the strings as arguments. (man)
In short, xargs takes a string and sends the string as arguments to another command. By default, xargs expects the input from stdin, and executes echo command over the input.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| ls *.txt | xargs wc -l | count lines in files |
| ls *.txt | xargs -t wc -l | showing command to be executed |
| echo {0..9} | xargs -n 2 | the -n flag to xargs specifies how many arguments at a time to supply to the given command |
| echo "1,2,3,4,5" | xargs -d, echo | use custome delimeter |
| echo "1,2,3,4,5" | xargs -d, -L 1 echo | show output in sepreate line |
| time echo {1..10} | xargs -n 1 -P 4 sleep | the -P flag allows xargs to invoke the specified command multiple times in parallel |
| find . -name '*.txt' -not -name "all.txt" | xargs cat > all.txt | concatenate txt files |
| xargs -a urls.txt -L 1 echo | read from file instead of stdin |
| cat urls.txt | xargs -I DOMAIN nslookup DOMAIN 8.8.8.8 | insert argument in specific place |
| echo {1..6} | xargs -n2 -p | prompt user before execution with -p option |
| find . -name "*.pyc" | xargs rm -rf | delete all *.pyc files |
| find . -name "*.pyc" | xargs -0 rm -rf | delete all *.pyc files that has white-space in the filename |
| find . -name "*.py" | xargs grep 'import antigravity' | combine find with grep command |
| find . -name '*.txt' | xargs zip -9 txt.zip | zip all *.txt files |
| cat url.txt | xargs wget –c | download files from urls.txt |
| cat files.txt | xargs -I {} sh -c "test -e {} && echo {}" | check list of files in files.txt for existence |
| echo "/dir1/ /dir2/ /dir3/" | xargs -n 1 cp -v foo.txt | copy one file named foo.txt to multiple directories called /dir1/, /dir2/, and /dir3/ |