xargs Unix Command/r&d22112011

xargs

1.  Makes stdin as a command line argument
2.  useful for running a command a bunch of times
3.  Example: Search in all files for a variable name

               $ find . name “*.cxx” | xargs grep var

     4.This is equivalent to running grep on all *.cxx files in all subdirectories.
         

              $ grep *.cxx

    5. The above would only search files in current directory


xargs (is xtreme)

• Use -I{} to replace all occurrences of {} in the command with the standard input.

• Example (I use all the time): Run all the scripts in all subdirectories

        EX.
                   $ find . name "*.sh" | xargs I{} sh {}
    

• Copy lots of files at once.

               Ex.
                    $ find . name '*.dat' | xargs I{} cp {} /folder/