X-Spam-Check-By:	sourceware.org
Date:	Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:46:37 -0500
From:	Jean-Rene David <jrdavid AT magma DOT ca>
To:	cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject:	Re: xargs problem
Message-ID:	<20070219164637.GB8804@princo>
Mail-Followup-To:	cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
References:	<1171899485 DOT 45d9c45d44ef0 AT www DOT domainfactory-webmail DOT de>
MIME-Version:	1.0
In-Reply-To:	<1171899485.45d9c45d44ef0@www.domainfactory-webmail.de>
User-Agent:	Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11)
X-magma-MailScanner-Information:	Magma Mailscanner Service
X-magma-MailScanner:	Clean
X-IsSubscribed:	yes
Mailing-List:	contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
List-Id:	<cygwin.cygwin.com>
List-Unsubscribe:	<mailto:cygwin-unsubscribe-archive-cygwin=delorie DOT com AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Subscribe:	<mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Archive:	<http://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post:	<mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Help:	<mailto:cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com>, <http://sourceware.org/ml/#faqs>
Sender:	cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To:	cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Delivered-To:	mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

* Markus Hoenicka [2007.02.19 10:45]:
> $ echo test1 test2|xargs -t
> /bin/echo test1 test2
> test1 test2
> 
> I'd expect the output to read:
> 
> /bin/echo test1
> test1
> /bin/echo test2
> test2

Your assumption about what xargs does is
incorrect. It does not call the command once for
each argument on its standard input.

Instead, it constructs a command-line, the length
of which is system-dependent. The number of
arguments it will take for each call to the
command isn't clear at all and even depends on the
length of the command itself.

You need to tell xargs explicitly that you want to
take the arguments one by one:

$ echo foo bar | xargs -t -n1
/bin/echo foo 
foo
/bin/echo bar 
bar

-- 
JR

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/

- Raw text -