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>.

Install

All systems
curl cmd.cat/xargs.sh
Debian Debian
apt-get install findutils
Ubuntu
apt-get install findutils
Alpine
apk add findutils
Arch Arch Linux
pacman -S findutils
image/svg+xml Kali Linux
apt-get install findutils
Fedora
dnf install findutils-1
Windows (WSL2)
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install findutils
OS X
brew install findutils
Raspbian
apt-get install findutils
Dockerfile
dockerfile.run/xargs
Docker
docker run cmd.cat/xargs xargs powered by Commando

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. If `max-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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