Understanding Xargs


 
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# 8  
Old 12-28-2017
That's the problem: I know that instead of {} we could use any other symbol which would stand for the same thing. I know that xargs is essentially a loop that collects collects arguments and makes an utility execute it till the original input is exhausted. But what {} in the command line stands for actually? Is it empty space? If yes, is that the empty space that xargs is watching for in input? Or maybe it's a variable?

Also.

1. Could it be that in this case using xargs is equivalent to Find-And-Replace. Can we replace any word of the input to whatever comes to our mind


2.Does -R means a number of arguments replacement occurs in?

3. Can we replace any input with whatever we want with -I?

Could you please give an example of using xargs with both -I and -R options?

Last edited by rbatte1; 01-09-2018 at 07:47 AM.. Reason: Added ICODE tags
This User Gave Thanks to scrutinizerix For This Post:
# 9  
Old 12-30-2017
Quote:
Originally Posted by scrutinizerix
That's the problem: I know that instead of {} we could use any other symbol which would stand for the same thing. I know that xargs is essentially a loop that collects collects arguments and makes an utility execute it till the original input is exhausted. But what {} in the command line stands for actually? Is it empty space? If yes, is that the empty space that xargs is watching for in input? Or maybe it's a variable?
I don't understand your question. You chose to use the string {} when you used it as the option-argument to the -I option. You could have chosen any string you wanted. You chose {}.

Quote:
Also.

1. Could it be that in this case using xargs is equivalent to Find-And-Replace. Can we replace any word of the input to whatever comes to our mind
No! There is no Find operation here. You are constructing a command line to be executed by xargs for each line it reads from its standard input. Each occurrence of replstr ({} in your example) in the first replacements arguments given to the command in your invocation of xargs that contain the string replstr will be replaced by the contents of one line read from standard input.

Quote:
2.Does -R means a number of arguments replacement occurs in?
The -R option-argument specifies the maximum number of arguments containing replstr in which replstr will be replaced by the contents of an input line.

Quote:
3. Can we replace any input with whatever we want with -I?
NO! The xargs utility doesn't replace any input! It replaces the replstr -I option-argument string found in command line arguments being used to construct commands to be invoked by xargs in up to replacements arguments that contain replstr.

Quote:
Could you please give an example of using xargs with both -I and -R options?
If the file in.txt contains:
Code:
a
b c d
e

then the output produced by the command:
Code:
xargs -IX -R3 echo 1 X 2 XX 3 "X X" 4 X < in.txt

will be:
Code:
1 a 2 aa 3 a a 4 X
1 b c d 2 b c db c d 3 b c d b c d 4 X
1 e 2 ee 3 e e 4 X

Note that with -R3, the X in the last argument to be passed to echo is not replaced by the contents of an input line because all occurrences of X have already been replaced in three earlier arguments. With the command:
Code:
xargs -IX -R1 echo 1 X 2 XX 3 "X X" 4 X < in.txt

the output would be:
Code:
1 a 2 XX 3 X X 4 X
1 b c d 2 XX 3 X X 4 X
1 e 2 XX 3 X X 4 X

replacing replstr (X in this case) only in the first argument that contains replstr.

Last edited by rbatte1; 01-09-2018 at 07:48 AM.. Reason: Retro-fitted the ICODE tags into the quotes I've adjusted in the previous post
This User Gave Thanks to Don Cragun For This Post:
# 10  
Old 01-08-2018
I think there's a simpler way to solve this problem.

The -I option is written to solve a hole in xargs's features.

xargs lets you do this:

Code:
echo a b c | xargs echo -option # xargs runs echo -option a b c

But what if you wanted to run echo a b c -option ? The basic syntax has no way to do that, it can't append arguments, just prepend.

But the -I syntax lets you do that:

Code:
echo a b c | xargs -I %% cat %% -option # Substitute %% -option with a b c, resulting in a b c -option

That is all -I does.

As for what line means to xargs? Usually, nothing. It splits apart text on any whitespace and only cares about lines in particular if you tell it to.

Last edited by rbatte1; 01-09-2018 at 07:49 AM.. Reason: Added ICODE tags to match the updates I'd made in the previous posts
This User Gave Thanks to Corona688 For This Post:
# 11  
Old 01-13-2018
That's how I ultimately came to the understanding:
Understanding Xargs-xargs_infographicsnewerjpg
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