1.\" $NetBSD: xargs.1,v 1.7 1997/06/24 00:45:28 lukem Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 7.\" John B. Roll Jr. and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics 8.\" Engineers, Inc. 9.\" 10.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 11.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 12.\" are met: 13.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 14.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 15.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 16.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 17.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 18.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 19.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 20.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 21.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 22.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 23.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 24.\" without specific prior written permission. 25.\" 26.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 27.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 28.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 29.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 30.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 31.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 32.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 33.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 34.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 35.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 36.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 37.\" 38.\" @(#)xargs.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 39.\" 40.Dd June 6, 1993 41.Dt XARGS 1 42.Os 43.Sh NAME 44.Nm xargs 45.Nd "construct argument list(s) and execute utility" 46.Sh SYNOPSIS 47.Nm 48.Op Fl 0 49.Op Fl t 50.Oo Op Fl x 51.Fl n Ar number 52.Oc 53.Op Fl s Ar size 54.Op Ar utility Op Ar arguments ... 55.Sh DESCRIPTION 56The 57.Nm 58utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file delimited arguments 59from the standard input and executes the specified 60.Ar utility 61with them as 62arguments. 63.Pp 64The utility and any arguments specified on the command line are given 65to the 66.Ar utility 67upon each invocation, followed by some number of the arguments read 68from standard input. 69The 70.Ar utility 71is repeatedly executed until standard input is exhausted. 72.Pp 73Spaces, tabs and newlines may be embedded in arguments using single 74(``\ '\ '') 75or double (``"'') quotes or backslashes (``\e''). 76Single quotes escape all non-single quote characters, excluding newlines, 77up to the matching single quote. 78Double quotes escape all non-double quote characters, excluding newlines, 79up to the matching double quote. 80Any single character, including newlines, may be escaped by a backslash. 81.Pp 82The options are as follows: 83.Bl -tag -width Fl 84.It Fl 0 85Use NUL 86(``\e0'') 87instead of whitespace as the argument separator. 88This can be used in conjuction with the 89.Fl print0 90option of 91.Xr find 1 . 92.It Fl n Ar number 93Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for each 94invocation of the utility. 95An invocation of 96.Ar utility 97will use less than 98.Ar number 99standard input arguments if the number of bytes accumulated (see the 100.Fl s 101option) exceeds the specified 102.Ar size 103or there are fewer than 104.Ar number 105arguments remaining for the last invocation of 106.Ar utility . 107The current default value for 108.Ar number 109is 5000. 110.It Fl s Ar size 111Set the maximum number of bytes for the command line length provided to 112.Ar utility . 113The sum of the length of the utility name and the arguments passed to 114.Ar utility 115(including 116.Dv NULL 117terminators) will be less than or equal to this number. 118The current default value for 119.Ar size 120is 121.Dv ARG_MAX 122- 2048. 123.It Fl t 124Echo the command to be executed to standard error immediately before it 125is executed. 126.It Fl x 127Force 128.Nm 129to terminate immediately if a command line containing 130.Ar number 131arguments will not fit in the specified (or default) command line length. 132.El 133.Pp 134If no 135.Ar utility 136is specified, 137.Xr echo 1 138is used. 139.Pp 140Undefined behavior may occur if 141.Ar utility 142reads from the standard input. 143.Pp 144The 145.Nm 146utility exits immediately (without processing any further input) if a 147command line cannot be assembled, 148.Ar utility 149cannot be invoked, an invocation of the utility is terminated by a signal 150or an invocation of the utility exits with a value of 255. 151.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 152.Nm 153exits with one of the following values: 154.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact 155.It 0 156All invocations of 157.Ar utility 158returned a zero exit status. 159.It 123 160One or more invocations of 161.Ar utility 162returned a nonzero exit status. 163.It 124 164The 165.Ar utility 166exited with a 255 exit status. 167.It 125 168The 169.Ar utility 170was killed or stopped by a signal. 171.It 126 172The 173.Ar utility 174was found but could not be invoked. 175.It 127 176The 177.Ar utility 178could not be found. 179.It 1 180Some other error occurred. 181.El 182.Sh SEE ALSO 183.Xr echo 1 , 184.Xr find 1 185.Sh STANDARDS 186The 187.Nm 188utility is expected to be 189.St -p1003.2 190compliant. 191.Sh HISTORY 192The meaning of 123, 124, and 125 exit values were taken from GNU xargs. 193