Under Development
The xargs command is extremely useful when we combine it with other commands.This tutorials explains the usage of xargs command using few simple examples.
1. Xargs Basic Example
The xargs command (by default) expects the input from stdin, and executes /bin/echo command over the input. When you execute xargs without any argument, or when you execute it without combining with any other commands. you get Welcome message
> xargs
Hi,
Welcome to TGS.Hi, Welcome to TGS.
After you type something, press ctrl+d, which will echo the string back to you on stdout as shown below.
2. Specify Delimiter Using -d option
Delimiters can be applied so that each character in the input is taken literally using -d option in xargs.In the following example, when you use the -d\n, it will preserve newline delimiter in the output, and display the output exactly as it was typed.
> xargs -d\n
Hi,
Welcome to TGS.
3. Limit Output Per Line Using -n Option
By default as explained earlier, xargs displays whatever comes to its stdin as shown below.
> echo a b c d e f| xargs
a b c d e f
> echo a b c d e f| xargs -n 3
a b c
d e f
In the following example, we used -n 3, which will display only 3 items per line in the xargs output.
4. Delete Files that has White-space in the Filename
> find . -name “*.c” -print0 | xargs -0 rm -rf
Example
# fild /usr/preserve –mtime +30 –exec rm –f {} \;
is equivalent to….
# find /usr/preserve –mtime +30 –print | xargs rm –f
# find /usr/preserve –size +1024 –print | xargs –n20 rm –f
I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.
I publish technical articles at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market insights at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow, and SEO and digital marketing strategies at Wizbrand.
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