6 examples for xargs

  # find all file name ending with .pdf and remove them
find -name *.pdf | xargs rm -rf

#if file name contains spaces you shuold use this instead
find -name *.pdf | xargs -I{} rm -rf {}
        

  # problem: my conversations with my friend Ahmed are split up across 
# irc logs across different folders

# want to find: a conversation where we were talking about "apple butter"
find ~/chatlogs -name *ahmed* | xargs grep 'apple butter'

#faster than finding a bunch of filenames, retyping them and cat * | grep apple butter
        

  # check environment variables of a process:
xargs --null --max-args=1 < /proc/$(pidof process_name)/environ
        

  # 'find' some files, then use 'xargs' to pass them pairwise to 'mv'
# moving the contents of the first file to the second file
# 'xargs' will stop when 'mv' returns a bad exit code
find "$HOME" / -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -n 2 mv -f
        

  # find all UTF-8 encoded files
ls | xargs file | grep UTF-8

# find mbox unix-mail files
ls | xargs file | grep "very long lines"
        

  # backup all files under a certain size
ls -l | awk '$5<100000 { print $NF; }' | xargs glacier upload backupfoldername