> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://alomancy.gitbook.io/guides/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://alomancy.gitbook.io/guides/cheat-sheets/bash-cheat-sheets/xargs.md). # Xargs ## Xargs ### **Set tab as delimiter (default:space)** ``` xargs -d\t ``` ### **Prompt commands before running commands** ``` ls|xargs -L1 -p head ``` ### **Display 3 items per line** ``` echo 1 2 3 4 5 6| xargs -n 3 # 1 2 3 # 4 5 6 ``` ### **Prompt before execution** ``` echo a b c |xargs -p -n 3 ``` ### **Print command along with output** ``` xargs -t abcd # bin/echo abcd # abcd ``` ### **With find and rm** ``` find . -name "*.html"|xargs rm # when using a backtick rm `find . -name "*.html"` ``` ### **Delete files with whitespace in filename (e.g. "hello 2001")** ``` find . -name "*.c" -print0|xargs -0 rm -rf ``` ### **Show limits on command-line length** ``` xargs --show-limits # Output from my Ubuntu: # Your environment variables take up 3653 bytes # POSIX upper limit on argument length (this system): 2091451 # POSIX smallest allowable upper limit on argument length (all systems): 4096 # Maximum length of command we could actually use: 2087798 # Size of command buffer we are actually using: 131072 # Maximum parallelism (--max-procs must be no greater): 2147483647 ``` ### **Move files to folder** ``` find . -name "*.bak" -print 0|xargs -0 -I {} mv {} ~/old # or find . -name "*.bak" -print 0|xargs -0 -I file mv file ~/old ``` ### **Move first 100th files to a directory (e.g. d1)** ``` ls |head -100|xargs -I {} mv {} d1 ``` ### **Parallel** ``` time echo {1..5} |xargs -n 1 -P 5 sleep # a lot faster than: time echo {1..5} |xargs -n1 sleep ``` ### **Copy all files from A to B** ``` find /dir/to/A -type f -name "*.py" -print 0| xargs -0 -r -I file cp -v -p file --target-directory=/path/to/B # v: verbose| # p: keep detail (e.g. owner) ``` ### **With sed** ``` ls |xargs -n1 -I file sed -i '/^Pos/d' filename ``` ### **Add the file name to the first line of file** ``` ls |sed 's/.txt//g'|xargs -n1 -I file sed -i -e '1 i\>file\' file.txt ``` ### **Count all files** ``` ls |xargs -n1 wc -l ``` ### **Turn output into a single line** ``` ls -l| xargs ``` ### **Count files within directories** ``` echo mso{1..8}|xargs -n1 bash -c 'echo -n "$1:"; ls -la "$1"| grep -w 74 |wc -l' -- # "--" signals the end of options and display further option processing ``` ### **Count lines in all file, also count total lines** ``` ls|xargs wc -l ``` ### **Xargs and grep** ``` cat grep_list |xargs -I{} grep {} filename ``` ### **Xargs and sed (replace all old ip address with new ip address under /etc directory)** ``` grep -rl '192.168.1.111' /etc | xargs sed -i 's/192.168.1.111/192.168.2.111/g' ``` --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://alomancy.gitbook.io/guides/cheat-sheets/bash-cheat-sheets/xargs.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.