Commands using xargs sorted by votes

Commands using xargs (769)

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Find biggest 10 files in current and subdirectories and sort by file size
This is sample output - yours may be different.
9

find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 du -h | sort -hr | head -10

netaxiz · 2012-06-30 10:03:31 4
Add all unversioned files to svn
This is sample output - yours may be different.
8

svn st | grep "^\?" | awk "{print \$2}" | xargs svn add $1

mk · 2009-02-05 17:28:53 31
recurisvely md5 all files in a tree

Found this little gem here: http://info.michael-simons.eu/2008/10/25/recursively-md5sum-all-files-in-a-directory-tree/
This is sample output - yours may be different.
8

find ./backup -type f -print0 | xargs -0 md5sum > /checksums_backup.md5

hooobs · 2009-02-12 19:39:12 19
Search through files, ignoring .svn

By putting the "-not $ -name .svn -prune $" in the very front of the "find" command, you eliminate the .svn directories in your find command itself. No need to grep them out. You can even create an alias for this command: alias svn_find="find . -not $ -name .svn -prune $" Now you can do things like svn_find -mtime -3
This is sample output - yours may be different.
8

find . -not $ -name .svn -prune $ -type f -print0 | xargs --null grep <searchTerm>

qazwart · 2009-07-08 20:08:05 10
backup and remove files with access time older than 5 days.

create an archive of files with access time older than 5 days, and remove original files.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

tar -zcvpf backup_`date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"`.tar.gz `find <target> -atime +5` 2> /dev/null | xargs rm -fr ;

angleto · 2009-05-26 17:15:52 8
purge installed but unused linux headers, image, or modules

will purge: only installed apps: /^ii/!d avoiding current kernel stuff: /'"$(uname -r | sed "s/$.*$-$[^0-9]\+$/\1/")"'/d using app names: s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* $[^ ]*$.*/\1/ avoiding stuff without a version number: /[0-9]/!d
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/$.*$-$[^0-9]\+$/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* $[^ ]*$.*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

plasticdoc · 2009-06-19 10:11:00 9
git remove files which have been deleted

I've used technicalpickles command a lot, but this one handles whitespaces in filenames. I'm sure you want to create an alias for it :) Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ git status
# On branch master
# Changed but not updated:
#   (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#
#	deleted:    some file
#	deleted:    some_file
#	deleted:    somefile
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
$ git ls-files -z --deleted | xargs -0 git rm
rm 'some file'
rm 'some_file'
rm 'somefile'
```
7

git ls-files -z --deleted | xargs -0 git rm

blindgaenger · 2009-07-14 08:29:38 5
Get the size of all the directories in current directory (Sorted Human Readable)

This allows the output to be sorted from largest to smallest in human readable format.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

sudo du -ks $(ls -d */) | sort -nr | cut -f2 | xargs -d '\n' du -sh 2> /dev/null

Code_Bleu · 2009-08-17 22:21:09 53

This one-liner will use strace to attach to all of the currently running apache processes output and piped from the initial "ps auxw" command into some awk. Show Sample Output

This is sample output - yours may be different.

ps auxw | grep sbin/apache | awk '{print"-p " $2}' | xargs strace
Process 7313 attached - interrupt to quit
Process 7395 attached - interrupt to quit
Process 7396 attached - interrupt to quit
Process 7397 attached - interrupt to quit
Process 7398 attached - interrupt to quit
Process 7399 attached - interrupt to quit
Process 7401 attached - interrupt to quit
Process 7403 attached - interrupt to quit
Process 7448 attached - interrupt to quit
Process 7468 attached - interrupt to quit
Process 7469 attached - interrupt to quit
attach: ptrace(PTRACE_ATTACH, ...): No such process
[pid  7313] select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {0, 48000} <unfinished ...>
[pid  7395] poll([{fd=11, events=POLLIN}, {fd=10, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}, {fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=6, events=POLLIN}, {fd=5, events=POLLIN}, {fd=4, events=POLLIN}, {fd=85, events=POLLIN}, {fd=19, events=POLLIN}], 10, -1 <unfinished ...>
[pid  7396] semop(1572864, {{0, -1, SEM_UNDO}}, 1 <unfinished ...>
[pid  7397] semop(1572864, {{0, -1, SEM_UNDO}}, 1 <unfinished ...>
[pid  7398] poll([{fd=15, events=POLLIN}, {fd=19, events=POLLIN}], 2, -1 <unfinished ...>
[pid  7399] semop(1572864, {{0, -1, SEM_UNDO}}, 1 <unfinished ...>
[pid  7401] poll([{fd=15, events=POLLIN}, {fd=19, events=POLLIN}], 2, -1 <unfinished ...>
[pid  7403] poll([{fd=15, events=POLLIN}, {fd=19, events=POLLIN}], 2, -1 <unfinished ...>
[pid  7448] poll([{fd=15, events=POLLIN}, {fd=19, events=POLLIN}], 2, -1 <unfinished ...>
[pid  7468] poll([{fd=15, events=POLLIN}, {fd=19, events=POLLIN}], 2, -1 <unfinished ...>
[pid  7469] poll([{fd=15, events=POLLIN}, {fd=19, events=POLLIN}], 2, -1 <unfinished ...>
[pid  7313] <... select resumed> )      = 0 (Timeout)
[pid  7313] gettimeofday({1300139401, 36665}, NULL) = 0
[pid  7313] waitpid(-1, 0xffdc0a68, WNOHANG|WSTOPPED) = 0
[pid  7313] select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0}) = 0 (Timeout)
[pid  7313] gettimeofday({1300139402, 39688}, NULL) = 0
[pid  7313] waitpid(-1, 0xffdc0a68, WNOHANG|WSTOPPED) = 0
[pid  7313] select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0} <unfinished ...>
Process 7313 detached
Process 7395 detached
Process 7396 detached
Process 7397 detached
Process 7398 detached
Process 7399 detached
Process 7401 detached
Process 7403 detached
Process 7448 detached
Process 7468 detached
Process 7469 detached

ps auxw | grep sbin/apache | awk '{print"-p " $2}' | xargs strace

px · 2011-03-14 21:45:22 34

Find out which debian package a command (executable) belongs to on debian-based distros

This revision to my command (command #8851) was called for when it failed to find the parent package of 'rlogin', which is really a deep symbolic link to /usr/bin/ssh. This revision fixes this newfound issue, while ensuring fixes of other older issues work too. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ function whichpkg(){ readlink -f "$(which $1)" | xargs --no-run-if-empty dpkg -S; }

$whichpkg rlogin
openssh-client: /usr/bin/ssh
```
7

function whichpkg() { readlink -f "$(which $1)" | xargs --no-run-if-empty dpkg -S; }

b_t · 2011-10-28 02:53:19 4
Diff 2 file struct - Useful for branch diff and jars diff(uncompressed)

This is usefull to diff 2 paths in branches of software, or in different versions of a same zip file. So you can get the real file diff. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
5469c5470
< e388cca0b1566dddf56362a223a003b1  ./META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
---
> 9dc47f8a8175dc93c4c2393ad3e09ce9  ./META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
```
7

diff <(cd A; find -type f|xargs md5sum ) <(cd B; find -type f | xargs md5sum )

glaudiston · 2013-07-02 18:02:05 9
Show the command line for a PID, converting nulls to spaces and a newline

If you cat the file, all the parts of the command line are bunched up. If you use tr to convert the nulls to spaces, you're still left without a newline unless you add another step. This command does everything for you. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
/usr/lib/postgresql/9.3/bin/postgres -D /var/lib/postgresql/9.3/main -c config_file=/etc/postgresql/9.3/main/postgresql.conf
```
7

xargs -0a /proc/27288/cmdline echo

dennisw · 2015-09-25 17:35:11 17
Find the package that installed a command
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

whatinstalled() { which "$@" | xargs -r readlink -f | xargs -r dpkg -S ;}

pdxdoughnut · 2016-11-08 20:59:25 23
do a full file listing of every file found with locate
This is sample output - yours may be different.
6

locate searchstring | xargs ls -l

pixel · 2009-02-06 00:02:35 49
a find and replace within text-based files, to locate and rewrite text en mass.

syntax follows regular command line expression. example: let's say you have a directory (with subdirs) that has say 4000 .php files. All of these files were made via script, but uh-oh, there was a typo! if the typo is "let's go jome!" but you meant it to say "let's go home!" find . -name "*.php" | xargs perl -pi -e "s/let\'s\ go\ jome\!/let\'s\ go\ home\!/g" all better :) multiline: find . -name "*.php" | xargs perl -p0777i -e 's/knownline1\nknownline2/replaced/m' indescriminate line replace: find ./ -name '*.php' | xargs perl -pi -e 's/\".*$\"/\new\ line\ content/g' Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
command will have no echo
```
6

find . -name "*.txt" | xargs perl -pi -e 's/old/new/g'

neztach · 2009-02-06 00:28:03 28
Change string in many files at once and more.

Find all files that contain string XXX in them, change the string from XXX to YYY, make a backup copy of the file and save a list of files changed in /tmp/fileschanged.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
6

find . -type f -exec grep -l XXX {} \;|tee /tmp/fileschanged|xargs perl -pi.bak -e 's/XXX/YYY/g'

drossman · 2009-02-16 02:55:23 59
List top ten files/directories sorted by size
This is sample output - yours may be different.
6

du -sb *|sort -nr|head|awk '{print $2}'|xargs du -sh

srand · 2009-05-12 19:58:45 9
Monitor logs in Linux using Tail

Works in Ubuntu, I hope it will work on all Linux machines. For Unixes, tail should be capable of handling more than one file with '-f' option. This command line simply take log files which are text files, and not ending with a number, and it will continuously monitor those files. Putting one alias in .profile will be more useful.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
6

find /var/log -type f -exec file {} \; | grep 'text' | cut -d' ' -f1 | sed -e's/:$//g' | grep -v '[0-9]$' | xargs tail -f

mohan43u · 2009-06-03 09:47:08 11
Delete all but latest file in a directory

Useful for deleting old unused log files.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
6

ls -pt1 | sed '/.*\//d' | sed 1d | xargs rm

patko · 2009-07-29 13:59:58 7
Verbosely delete files matching specific name pattern, older than 15 days.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
6

find /backup/directory -name "FILENAME_*" -mtime +15 | xargs rm -vf

monkeymac · 2009-08-22 16:58:23 6
Find and list users who talk like "lolcats"

Greps IRC logs for phrases and lists users who said them. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
Note to self, ban user 'aoluser'
Note to self, ban user 'msnuser'
```
5

cd ~/.purple/logs/; egrep -ri "i can haz|pwn|l33t|w00|zomg" * | cut -d'/' -f 3 | sort | uniq | xargs -I {} echo "Note to self: ban user '{}'"

rhythmx · 2009-02-05 21:23:53 20
Find 'foo' string inside files
This is sample output - yours may be different.
5

find . -type f -print | xargs grep foo

syndrael · 2009-02-13 12:22:53 14
Compress files found with find

tar options may change ;) c to compress into a tar file, z for gzip (j for bzip) man tar -print0 and -0t are usefull for names with spaces, \, etc.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
5

find ~/bin/ -name "*sh" -print0 | xargs -0t tar -zcvf foofile.tar.gz

lhb · 2009-02-17 08:48:34 8
restore the contents of a deleted file for which a descriptor is still available

Note that the file at the given path will have the contents of the (still) deleted file, but it is a new file with a new node number; in other words, this restores the data, but it does not actually "undelete" the old file. I posted a function declaration encapsulating this functionality to http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7yx6f/how_to_undelete_any_open_deleted_file_in_linux/c07sqwe (please excuse the crap formatting).
This is sample output - yours may be different.
5

N="filepath" ; P=/proc/$(lsof +L1 | grep "$N" | awk '{print $2}')/fd ; ls -l $P | sed -rn "/$N/s/.*([0-9]+) ->.*/\1/p" | xargs -I_ cat $P/_ > "$N"

laburu · 2009-02-21 02:31:24 28
for too many arguments by *

grep ERROR *.log -bash: /bin/grep: Argument list too long echo *.log | xargs grep ERROR /dev/null 20090119.00011.log:DANGEROUS ERROR
This is sample output - yours may be different.
5

echo *.log | xargs <command>

mikeda · 2009-02-22 11:32:55 7
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Search recursively to find a word or phrase in certain file types, such as C code

I have a bash alias for this command line and find it useful for searching C code for error messages. The -H tells grep to print the filename. you can omit the -i to match the case exactly or keep the -i for case-insensitive matching. This find command find all .c and .h files

Query an NFS host for its list of exports

urldecoding

create a temporary file in a command line call

Sometimes you have a script that needs and inputfile for execution. If you don't want to create one because it may contain only one line you can use the `

Count opening and closing braces in a string.

This function counts the opening and closing braces in a string. This is useful if you have eg long boolean expressions with many braces and you simply want to check if you didn't forget to close one.

How To Display Bash History Without Line Numbers

userful for direct copy & paste command for doumenation or next using

Convert seconds to [DD:][HH:]MM:SS

Converts any number of seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds. sec2dhms() { declare -i SS="$1" D=$(( SS / 86400 )) H=$(( SS % 86400 / 3600 )) M=$(( SS % 3600 / 60 )) S=$(( SS % 60 )) [ "$D" -gt 0 ] && echo -n "${D}:" [ "$H" -gt 0 ] && printf "%02g:" "$H" printf "%02g:%02g\n" "$M" "$S" }

guitar synthesizer in one line of C

outputs a f=220Hz guitar string sound (fifth string A) needs ALSA

Find all files under a certain directory /home that have a certain suffix at the end of the file name. Show the file and rename them to remove the suffix.

awk using multiple field separators

You can use multiple field separators by separating them with | (=or). This may be helpful when you want to split a string by two separators for example. #echo "one=two three" | awk -F "=| " {'print $1, $3'} one three

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Commands using xargs (769)

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