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From:	"Hannu E K Nevalainen" <garbage_collector AT telia DOT com>
To:	<cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
Subject:	RE: bash /usr/bin/ls invalid argument
Date:	Tue, 28 Oct 2003 11:19:39 +0100
Message-ID:	<NGBBLLIAMFLGJEOAJCCEKEMODFAA.garbage_collector@telia.com>
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> From: Jared Ingersoll
> Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 8:55 PM

> I'm using bash 2.05b-16 on Win2K pro and I'm running into problems listing
> directory contents with a wildcard. This particular directory has
> over 8000
> files in it, most of which (99%) are files that start with
> send.log.*. When
> I issue the following commands, I get the same error:
>
> $ ls send.log.*
> bash: /usr/bin/ls: Invalid argument

 For newbies: to get to grips about how this works "under the hood"; read up
on how "Shell expansion" works in e.g. bash (i.e. search and read the "man"
or "info" on bash)

 IIRC there was a recent thread (about environment variables and passing
arguments to a windows-console program):

There is a 32KB length limit on the command line. This is imposed on us by
the underlying "OS" - i.e. not likely to change.


To check how long your command line would be, try something like this:

$ find -type f -name 'send.log.*' |
(
  read f;
  cc=-1;
  echo "";
  while [ ! -z "$f" ];do
    cc=$(( 1 + $cc + $( echo "$f" | wc -c) ));
    echo -e "\e[F$cc\e[K";read f;
  done;
  echo -e "\e[F$cc chars"
)

Remember to add the length of e.g. "ls -l " (note space).

If this gives a number larger than...

$ echo $(( ( 1 << 15 ) -1 ))
32767

... then you're "outta luck".

/Hannu E K Nevalainen, B.Sc. EE - 59?16.37'N, 17?12.60'E
-- printf("Timezone: %s\n", (DST)?"UTC+02":"UTC+01"); --
--END OF MESSAGE--


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