The xargs command is used to execute a command with arguments read from standard input or from a file.
command | xargs [options] executable
command: The command whose output will be used as input for xargs.executable: The command to be executed with arguments.Copy all files with a specific extension to a new directory:
find /path/to/source -type f -name "*.txt" | xargs -I {} cp {} /path/to/destination
Delete all files with a specific extension:
find /path/to/directory -type f -name "*.log" -print0 | xargs -0 rm
Find all files with a specific name and change their permissions:
find /path/to/directory -type f -name "file.txt" -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 644
Execute a command with arguments from a file:
cat file.txt | xargs -I {} command {}
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-I |
Replaces occurrences of a placeholder string with the input arguments. |
-0 |
Uses null characters as the delimiter instead of whitespace. |
-n |
Limits the number of arguments passed to the command. |
-P |
Limits the number of parallel processes. |
-t |
Displays the command being executed. |