xargs Command

xargs builds and executes command lines from standard input. It reads items from stdin and passes them as arguments to a specified command, enabling you to use output from one command as arguments for another.

xargs solves the common problem of passing too many arguments to a command (argument list too long error) by splitting input into manageable batches. It is essential for connecting find, grep, and other listing commands with action commands like rm, cp, chmod, and more.

xargs supports parallel execution, custom delimiters, confirmation prompts, and can handle filenames with spaces and special characters when used with -0 flag and null-terminated input.

Option	Description	Example
-I {}	Replace {} with each input item	echo 'file1 file2' | xargs -I {} cp {} /backup/
-0	Input items are null-terminated (use with find -print0)	find . -name '*.log' -print0 | xargs -0 rm
-n	Use at most N arguments per command invocation	echo 1 2 3 4 5 | xargs -n 2 echo
-P	Run up to N processes in parallel	find . -name '*.png' | xargs -P 4 -I {} convert {} -resize 50% {}
-p	Prompt before execution (interactive)	find /tmp -name '*.tmp' | xargs -p rm
-t	Print command before executing	echo *.txt | xargs -t wc -l
-L	Use N lines per command invocation	cat urls.txt | xargs -L 1 curl -O