tldr/pages/common/xargs.md

# xargs

> Execute a command with piped arguments coming from another command, a file, etc.
> The input is treated as a single block of text and split into separate arguments on spaces, tabs, newlines and end-of-file.

- Main usage pattern:

`{{arguments_source}} | xargs {{command}}`

- Delete all files with a `.backup` extension. `-print0` on find uses a null character to split the files, and `-0` changes the delimiter to the null character (useful if there's whitespace in filenames):

`find . -name {{'*.backup'}} -print0 | xargs -0 rm -v`

- Execute the command once for each input line, replacing any occurrences of the placeholder (here marked as `_`) with the input line:

`{{arguments_source}} | xargs -I _ {{command}} _ {{optional_extra_arguments}}`

- Parallel runs of up to `max-procs` processes at a time; the default is 1.  If `max-procs` is 0, xargs will run as many processes as possible at a time:

`{{arguments_source}} | xargs -P {{max-procs}} {{command}}`