xargs: How To Control and Use Command Line Arguments

The xargs command is a utility in Linux and Unix that is used to build and execute command lines from standard input. It can be used to pass command line arguments to other programs or scripts, and it is often used in combination with other commands such as find, grep, or sed.

Here are some examples of how you can use xargs to control and use command line arguments:

• To pass arguments to a command, you can use the -I option to specify a placeholder for the arguments, and then use the {} symbol to indicate where the arguments should be placed in the command. For example:

# Find all files in the current directory and pass the filenames as arguments to the cat command
find . -type f | xargs -I {} cat {}

This will execute the cat command with the names of all files in the current directory as arguments, and it will display the contents of each file.

• To pass arguments to a script, you can use the -I option in the same way, and then use the $1, $2, etc. variables to access the arguments in the script. For example:

# Find all files in the current directory and pass the filenames as arguments to a script
find . -type f | xargs -I {} myscript.sh {}

# Inside the script, access the first argument with $1
echo "The first argument is: $1"

This will execute the myscript.sh script with the names of all files in the current directory as arguments, and it will print the first argument passed to the script.

• To pass multiple arguments to a command or script, you can use the -n option to specify the number of arguments to be passed at a time, and then use the {} symbol to indicate where the arguments should be placed in the command or script. For example:

# Find all files in the current directory and pass the filenames as two arguments at a time to the cat command
find . -type f | xargs -n 2 -I {} cat {}

# Find all files in the current directory and pass the filenames as two arguments at a time to a script
find . -type f | xargs -n 2 -I {} myscript.sh {}

# Inside the script, access the first argument with $1 and the second argument with $2
echo "The first argument is: $1"
echo "The second argument is: $2"

This will execute the cat command or myscript.sh script with two arguments at a time, and it will display the contents of each file or print the arguments passed to the script.

For more information about the xargs command and its options, you can consult the xargs documentation or use the man xargs command to see the manual page.