5 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 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