xargs

The xargs command reads items from standard input (such as output from another command) and executes a specified command using those items as arguments. It helps bridge commands that produce lists with commands that expect arguments.

Basic Syntax

xargs [OPTION]... COMMAND [INITIAL-ARGS]...

Common Options

Option	Description
-0, --null	Input items are terminated by a null character instead of whitespace (useful with find -print0).
-n MAX-ARGS	Use at most MAX-ARGS arguments per command line.
-I REPLACE-STR	Replace occurrences of REPLACE-STR in the initial arguments with names read from standard input.
-p, --interactive	Prompt the user about whether to run each command line.

Real-world Examples

1. Delete all .tmp files found by find:

   find . -name "*.tmp" | xargs rm

2. Handle filenames with spaces safely:

   find . -name "*.log" -print0 | xargs -0 rm

3. Pass arguments to a specific position using -I:

   cat urls.txt | xargs -I {} wget {}

4. Process files in batches of 3:

   ls | xargs -n 3 echo "Batch:"