I realize this has already been solved, but for future reference: another solutions would have been the basic POSIX tool xargs, shipped with any unix-like os.
It's syntax is very close to the -exec switch used in find (another great tool, more of that later). In this case after removing the quotes from the lines in the file, a single command would have sufficed:
xargs is designed to overcome the Argument list too long error, and in the process has developed a nice set of features.
If you hadn't had a file containing the filenames, you could easily have generated one using find, assuming /Backup/Time Machine/dir_11735865/ is the directory containing the files you wanted to delete:
The directories would have been left alone, but cleaning them would have been a simple task.
Also Beware of executing rm in a aforementioned way without checking what's going to happen. For example, I usually change the command to echo:
Hi,
I have a small requirement where i need to sum up a column in a text file.
Input file
66ab 000000 534385 -00000106350.00
66cd 000000 534485 -00013364511.00
66ad 000000 534485 -00000426548.00
672a 000000 534485 000000650339.82... (5 Replies)
Hi Guys,
I have text file which is tab/space separated but I want it to re-format into a comma separated and trim the spaces in between. Can someone spare me a perl or sed script that can do the job?
INPUT FILE:
500010245623 500 21-APR-11 05.58.21 PM ... (14 Replies)
I have a log file that contains several reports with following format.
<Start of delimiter> Report1 header
Report1 header continue
Report1 header continue
Record1 header
Record1 header continue
Record1 header continue
field1 field2 field3 field4
------... (1 Reply)
Hello,
I have some data in a text file where fields are separated by blank lines. There are only 6 fields however some fields have several lines of data as I will explain. Also data in a particular field is not consistently the same size but does end on a blank line. The first field start with... (6 Replies)
Hi,
I have a large number of files which are written as csv (comma-separated values).
Does anyone know of simple sed/awk command do achieve this?
Thanks!
---------- Post updated at 10:59 AM ---------- Previous update was at 10:54 AM ----------
Guess I asked this too soon. Found the... (0 Replies)
Hi,
I need help to split a long text in a column which is separated by ; and i need to print them out in multiple columns. My input file is tab-delimited and has 11 columns as below:-
aRg02004 21452 asdfwf 21452 21452 4.6e-29 5e-29 -1 3 50 ffg|GGD|9009 14101.10 High class -node. ; ffg|GGD|969... (3 Replies)
I have a file containing multiple values, some of them are pipe separated which are to be read as separate values and some of them are single value all are these need to store in variables.
I need to read this file which is an input to my script
Config.txt
file name, first path, second... (7 Replies)
Hello ppl
I have a requirement to split (cut in unix) a file (A.txt) which is a pipe delimited file into A1.txt and A2.txt
Now I have to join (paste in unix) this A2.txt with external file A3.txt to form
output file A4.txt which should be CSV (comma separated file) so that third party can... (25 Replies)
I'd like to take the output of `pwsafe --exportdb > database.txt` and convert it to a KeePassX XML friendly format (feature request in pwsafe).
I found flat file converter but the syntax is beyond me with this example. Solutions are welcomed.
More details
Here is the pwsafe --> KeePassX XML... (2 Replies)
hi all,
trying this using shell/bash with sed/awk/grep
I have two files, one containing one column, the other containing multiple columns (comma delimited).
file1.txt
abc12345
def12345
ghi54321
...
file2.txt
abc1,text1,texta
abc,text2,textb
def123,text3,textc
gh,text4,textd... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: shogun1970
6 Replies
LEARN ABOUT BSD
xargs
XARGS(1) General Commands Manual XARGS(1)NAME
xargs - construct argument list(s) and execute utility
SYNOPSIS
xargs [ -t ][[ -x ] -n number ][ -s size ][ utility [ arguments... ]]
DESCRIPTION
The xargs utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file delimited arguments from the standard input and executes the specified utility
with them as arguments.
The utility and any arguments specified on the command line are given to the utility upon each invocation, followed by some number of the
arguments read from standard input. The utility is repeatedly executed until standard input is exhausted.
Spaces, tabs and newlines may be embedded in arguments using single (`` ' '') or double (``"'') quotes or backslashes (``''). Single
quotes escape all non-single quote characters, excluding newlines, up to the matching single quote. Double quotes escape all non-double
quote characters, excluding newlines, up to the matching double quote. Any single character, including newlines, may be escaped by a back-
slash.
The options are as follows:
-n number Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for each invocation of the utility. An invocation of utility will
use less than number standard input arguments if the number of bytes accumulated (see the s option) exceeds the specified size or
there are fewer than number arguments remaining for the last invocation of utility. The current default value for number is
5000.
-s size Set the maximum number of bytes for the command line length provided to utility. The sum of the length of the utility name and
the arguments passed to utility (including /dev/null terminators) will be less than or equal to this number. The current default
value for size is ARG_MAX - 2048.
-t Echo the command to be executed to standard error immediately before it is executed.
-x Force xargs to terminate immediately if a command line containing number arguments will not fit in the specified (or default)
command line length.
If no utility is specified, echo(1) is used.
Undefined behavior may occur if utility reads from the standard input.
The xargs utility exits immediately (without processing any further input) if a command line cannot be assembled, utility cannot be
invoked, an invocation of the utility is terminated by a signal or an invocation of the utility exits with a value of 255.
The xargs utility exits with a value of 0 if no error occurs. If utility cannot be invoked, xargs exits with a value of 127. If any other
error occurs, xargs exits with a value of 1.
SEE ALSO echo(1), find(1)STANDARDS
The xargs utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2("POSIX") compliant.
June 6, 1993 XARGS(1)