Annotation of src/usr.bin/xargs/xargs.1, Revision 1.4
1.4 ! deraadt 1: .\" $OpenBSD: xargs.1,v 1.6 1994/11/14 06:51:40 jtc 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.
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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.
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39: .\" @(#)xargs.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
40: .\"
41: .Dd June 6, 1993
42: .Dt XARGS 1
43: .Os
44: .Sh NAME
45: .Nm xargs
46: .Nd "construct argument list(s) and execute utility"
47: .Sh SYNOPSIS
48: .Nm xargs
1.2 deraadt 49: .Op Fl 0
1.1 deraadt 50: .Op Fl t
51: .Oo Op Fl x
52: .Fl n Ar number
53: .Oc
54: .Op Fl s Ar size
55: .Op Ar utility Op Ar arguments ...
56: .Sh DESCRIPTION
57: The
58: .Nm xargs
59: utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file delimited arguments
60: from the standard input and executes the specified
61: .Ar utility
62: with them as
63: arguments.
64: .Pp
65: The utility and any arguments specified on the command line are given
66: to the
67: .Ar utility
68: upon each invocation, followed by some number of the arguments read
69: from standard input.
70: The
71: .Ar utility
72: is repeatedly executed until standard input is exhausted.
73: .Pp
74: Spaces, tabs and newlines may be embedded in arguments using single
75: (``\ '\ '')
76: .Ek
77: or double (``"'') quotes or backslashes (``\e'').
78: Single quotes escape all non-single quote characters, excluding newlines,
79: up to the matching single quote.
80: Double quotes escape all non-double quote characters, excluding newlines,
81: up to the matching double quote.
82: Any single character, including newlines, may be escaped by a backslash.
83: .Pp
84: The options are as follows:
85: .Bl -tag -width indent
1.2 deraadt 86: .It Fl 0
87: Changes
88: .Nm xargs
89: to expect NUL
90: (``\\0'')
91: characters as seperators, instead of spaces and newlines.
92: This is expected to be used in concert with the
1.3 deraadt 93: .Fl print0
94: function in
1.2 deraadt 95: .Nm find .
1.1 deraadt 96: .It Fl n Ar number
97: Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for each
98: invocation of the utility.
99: An invocation of
100: .Ar utility
101: will use less than
102: .Ar number
103: standard input arguments if the number of bytes accumulated (see the
104: .Fl s
105: option) exceeds the specified
106: .Ar size
107: or there are fewer than
108: .Ar number
109: arguments remaining for the last invocation of
110: .Ar utility .
111: The current default value for
112: .Ar number
113: is 5000.
114: .It Fl s Ar size
115: Set the maximum number of bytes for the command line length provided to
116: .Ar utility .
117: The sum of the length of the utility name and the arguments passed to
118: .Ar utility
119: (including
120: .Dv NULL
121: terminators) will be less than or equal to this number.
122: The current default value for
123: .Ar size
124: is
125: .Dv ARG_MAX
126: - 2048.
127: .It Fl t
128: Echo the command to be executed to standard error immediately before it
129: is executed.
130: .It Fl x
131: Force
132: .Nm xargs
133: to terminate immediately if a command line containing
134: .Ar number
135: arguments will not fit in the specified (or default) command line length.
136: .El
137: .Pp
138: If no
139: .Ar utility
140: is specified,
141: .Xr echo 1
142: is used.
143: .Pp
144: Undefined behavior may occur if
145: .Ar utility
146: reads from the standard input.
147: .Pp
148: The
149: .Nm xargs
150: utility exits immediately (without processing any further input) if a
151: command line cannot be assembled,
152: .Ar utility
153: cannot be invoked, an invocation of the utility is terminated by a signal
154: or an invocation of the utility exits with a value of 255.
155: .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
156: .Nm xargs
157: exits with one of the following values:
158: .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
159: .It 0
160: All invocations of
161: .Ar utility
162: returned a zero exit status.
163: .It 123
164: One or more invocations of
165: .Ar utility
166: returned a nonzero exit status.
167: .It 124
168: The
169: .Ar utility
170: exited with a 255 exit status.
171: .It 125
172: The
173: .Ar utility
174: was killed or stopped by a signal.
175: .It 126
176: The
177: .Ar utility
178: was found but could not be invoked.
179: .It 127
180: The
181: .Ar utility
182: could not be found.
183: .It 1
184: Some other error occurred.
185: .El
186: .Sh SEE ALSO
187: .Xr echo 1 ,
188: .Xr find 1
189: .Sh STANDARDS
190: The
191: .Nm xargs
192: utility is expected to be
193: .St -p1003.2
194: compliant.
195: .Sh HISTORY
196: The meaning of 123, 124, and 125 exit values were taken from GNU xargs.
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