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:

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

• Convert newlines in the input into NUL (\0) characters, and split on those only (useful if the input to xargs contains spaces):

{{arguments_source}} | tr '\n' '\0' | xargs -0 {{command}}

• 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}}