The xargs command is used to build and execute a command line from a standard input. Commands such as cp, echo, rm, wc, and so on, don't take input from a standard input or redirected output from another command. In such commands, we can use xargs to provide an input as an output of another command. The syntax is as follows:
xargs [option]
Some of options are explained in the following table:
|
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
|
- |
This reads items from a file instead of stdin |
|
|
Inputs are null-terminated instead of whitespace |
|
|
Prints a command line on a standard output before executing |
|
|
This displays the limit on the length of the command line imposed by OS |
|
|
Runs upto the max-procs processes one at a time |
|
|
This at most uses the max-args argument per command line |