Annotation of src/usr.bin/xargs/xargs.1, Revision 1.11
1.11 ! millert 1: .\" $OpenBSD: xargs.1,v 1.10 2000/11/09 17:52:49 aaron Exp $
1.1 deraadt 2: .\" $NetBSD: xargs.1,v 1.6 1994/11/14 06:51:40 jtc Exp $
3: .\"
4: .\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993
5: .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
6: .\"
7: .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
8: .\" John B. Roll Jr. and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
9: .\" Engineers, Inc.
10: .\"
11: .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
12: .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
13: .\" are met:
14: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
15: .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
16: .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
17: .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
18: .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
1.11 ! millert 19: .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
1.1 deraadt 20: .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
21: .\" without specific prior written permission.
22: .\"
23: .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
24: .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
25: .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
26: .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
27: .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
28: .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
29: .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
30: .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
31: .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
32: .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
33: .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
34: .\"
35: .\" @(#)xargs.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
36: .\"
37: .Dd June 6, 1993
38: .Dt XARGS 1
39: .Os
40: .Sh NAME
41: .Nm xargs
42: .Nd "construct argument list(s) and execute utility"
43: .Sh SYNOPSIS
44: .Nm xargs
1.2 deraadt 45: .Op Fl 0
1.1 deraadt 46: .Op Fl t
47: .Oo Op Fl x
48: .Fl n Ar number
49: .Oc
50: .Op Fl s Ar size
51: .Op Ar utility Op Ar arguments ...
52: .Sh DESCRIPTION
53: The
1.7 aaron 54: .Nm
55: utility reads space, tab, newline, and end-of-file delimited arguments
1.1 deraadt 56: from the standard input and executes the specified
57: .Ar utility
58: with them as
59: arguments.
60: .Pp
61: The utility and any arguments specified on the command line are given
62: to the
63: .Ar utility
64: upon each invocation, followed by some number of the arguments read
65: from standard input.
66: The
67: .Ar utility
68: is repeatedly executed until standard input is exhausted.
69: .Pp
70: Spaces, tabs and newlines may be embedded in arguments using single
1.7 aaron 71: .Pq Ql '
72: or double
73: .Pq Ql \&"
74: quotes or backslashes
75: .Pq Ql \e .
1.1 deraadt 76: Single quotes escape all non-single quote characters, excluding newlines,
77: up to the matching single quote.
78: Double quotes escape all non-double quote characters, excluding newlines,
79: up to the matching double quote.
80: Any single character, including newlines, may be escaped by a backslash.
81: .Pp
82: The options are as follows:
1.10 aaron 83: .Bl -tag -width Ds
1.2 deraadt 84: .It Fl 0
85: Changes
1.7 aaron 86: .Nm
1.2 deraadt 87: to expect NUL
1.7 aaron 88: .Pq Ql \e0
1.5 deraadt 89: characters as separators, instead of spaces and newlines.
1.2 deraadt 90: This is expected to be used in concert with the
1.3 deraadt 91: .Fl print0
92: function in
1.7 aaron 93: .Xr find 1 .
1.1 deraadt 94: .It Fl n Ar number
95: Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for each
96: invocation of the utility.
97: An invocation of
98: .Ar utility
99: will use less than
100: .Ar number
101: standard input arguments if the number of bytes accumulated (see the
102: .Fl s
103: option) exceeds the specified
104: .Ar size
105: or there are fewer than
106: .Ar number
107: arguments remaining for the last invocation of
108: .Ar utility .
109: The current default value for
110: .Ar number
111: is 5000.
112: .It Fl s Ar size
1.7 aaron 113: Set the maximum number of bytes for the command-line length provided to
1.1 deraadt 114: .Ar utility .
115: The sum of the length of the utility name and the arguments passed to
116: .Ar utility
1.7 aaron 117: (including null terminators) will be less than or equal to this number.
1.1 deraadt 118: The current default value for
119: .Ar size
120: is
121: .Dv ARG_MAX
1.8 deraadt 122: - 4096.
1.1 deraadt 123: .It Fl t
124: Echo the command to be executed to standard error immediately before it
125: is executed.
126: .It Fl x
127: Force
1.7 aaron 128: .Nm
1.1 deraadt 129: to terminate immediately if a command line containing
130: .Ar number
1.7 aaron 131: arguments will not fit in the specified (or default) command-line length.
1.1 deraadt 132: .El
133: .Pp
134: If no
135: .Ar utility
136: is specified,
137: .Xr echo 1
138: is used.
139: .Pp
140: Undefined behavior may occur if
141: .Ar utility
142: reads from the standard input.
143: .Pp
144: The
1.7 aaron 145: .Nm
1.1 deraadt 146: utility exits immediately (without processing any further input) if a
147: command line cannot be assembled,
148: .Ar utility
1.7 aaron 149: cannot be invoked, an invocation of the utility is terminated by a signal,
1.1 deraadt 150: or an invocation of the utility exits with a value of 255.
1.9 aaron 151: .Pp
1.7 aaron 152: .Nm
1.1 deraadt 153: exits with one of the following values:
1.6 aaron 154: .Pp
1.1 deraadt 155: .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
156: .It 0
157: All invocations of
158: .Ar utility
159: returned a zero exit status.
160: .It 123
161: One or more invocations of
162: .Ar utility
163: returned a nonzero exit status.
164: .It 124
165: The
166: .Ar utility
167: exited with a 255 exit status.
168: .It 125
169: The
170: .Ar utility
171: was killed or stopped by a signal.
172: .It 126
173: The
174: .Ar utility
175: was found but could not be invoked.
176: .It 127
177: The
178: .Ar utility
179: could not be found.
180: .It 1
181: Some other error occurred.
182: .El
183: .Sh SEE ALSO
184: .Xr echo 1 ,
185: .Xr find 1
186: .Sh STANDARDS
187: The
1.7 aaron 188: .Nm
1.1 deraadt 189: utility is expected to be
190: .St -p1003.2
191: compliant.
192: .Sh HISTORY
1.7 aaron 193: The meaning of 123, 124, and 125 exit values were taken from GNU
194: .Nm xargs .
![[BACK]](/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
Return to xargs.1 CVS log ![[TXT]](/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/icons/dir.gif){kind=icon}
Up to [local] / src / usr.bin / xargs