bugfindutils - Bugs: bug #26327, xargs man page is vague about the...

 
 

bug #26327: xargs man page is vague about the number of times command is executed

Submitter:  Filipus Klutiero <chealer>
Submitted:  Fri 24 Apr 2009 05:14:46 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  documentation Severity:  3 - Normal
Item Group:  None Status:  Fixed
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  jay
Originator Name:  Open/Closed:  Closed
Release:  None Fixed Release:  4.5.6b
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Sun 12 Jul 2009 08:55:36 PM UTC, comment #3: 

Thanks.  Fixed.

James Youngman <jay>
Group administrator
Sun 12 Jul 2009 03:01:31 PM UTC, comment #2: 

Thank you jay.

Note typo "prarallel" in the patch.

Filipus Klutiero <chealer>
Sun 12 Jul 2009 12:07:46 PM UTC, comment #1: 

I've just applied the attached patch to the 4.5.x tree.

(file #18412)

James Youngman <jay>
Group administrator
Fri 24 Apr 2009 05:14:46 AM UTC, original submission:  

The xargs manual page contains

This manual page documents the GNU version of xargs. xargs reads items from the standard input, delimited by blanks (which can be protected with double or single quotes or a backslash) or newlines, and executes the command (default is /bin/echo) one or more times with any initial-arguments followed by items read from standard input.

This is a rather strange or vague introduction. One wonders how many times command is executed. It could be mentioned that without options, xargs does not necessarily pass the same number of arguments each time, and that xargs tends to read many arguments before executing a new command. It could also clarify to explain why xargs may not pass all arguments to a single command without options.
It could help to give an example of what xargs does. For example:

echo a b | xargs cat
could be equivalent to
cat a; cat b
or
cat a b

Filipus Klutiero <chealer>

 

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Attached Files
file #18412:  0001-Bug-26327-xargs-manpage-clarify-the-number-of-tim.patch added by jay (3KiB - text/x-diff - bugfix applied to 4.5.x.)

 

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  • -email is unavailable- added by jay (Updated the item)
  • -email is unavailable- added by chealer (Submitted the item)
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    Follow 5 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2010-03-31 jay Open/ClosedOpen Closed
        Fixed ReleaseNone 4.5.6b
    2009-07-12 jay Attached File- Added 0001-Bug-26327-xargs-manpage-clarify-the-number-of-tim.patch, #18412
        StatusNone Fixed
        Assigned toNone jay

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