Commands using xargs sorted by votes

Commands using xargs (769)

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Another way to calculate sum size of all files matching a pattern

Here the pattern is '*.jar', you could pass in any pattern. Another, maybe nicer way to do this is http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/1921/summarise-the-size-of-all-files-matching-a-simple-regex You could replace sed with tr Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
44
```
3

find . -iname '*.jar' | xargs du -ks | cut -f1 | xargs echo | sed "s/ /+/g" | bc

wires · 2009-06-08 14:29:56 6
Delete all aliases for a network interface on a (Free)BSD system

The example command deletes all aliases for network interface 'em0' assuming that the aliases have netmask of 255.255.255.255 and the master IP has some other netmask (such as 255.255.255.0). See here -> http://my.galagzee.com/2009/07/22/deleting-all-network-interface-aliases/ for more on the rationale of this command.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

ifconfig | grep "0xffffffff" | awk '{ print $2 }' | xargs -n 1 ifconfig em0 delete

vwal · 2009-08-04 05:18:36 3
Move all but the newest 100 emails to a gzipped archive
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

find $MAILDIR/ -type f -printf '%T@ %p\n' | sort --reverse | sed -e '{ 1,100d; s/[0-9]*\.[0-9]* $.*$/\1/g }' | xargs -i sh -c "cat {}&&rm -f {}" | gzip -c >>ARCHIVE.gz

maergil · 2009-08-11 20:12:15 3
Parallel mysql dump restore

this command works with one gziped file per table, and restore 4 tables in parallel. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
see mytop output
```
3

find -print0 | xargs -0 -n 1 -P 4 -I {} sh -c "zcat '{}' | mysql nix"

skygreg · 2009-08-25 15:05:55 15
Edit all files found having a specific string found by grep

The grep switches eliminate the need for awk and sed. Modifying vim with -p will show all files in separate tabs, -o in separate vim windows. Just wish it didn't hose my terminal once I exit vim!!
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

grep -Hrli 'foo' * | xargs vim

dere22 · 2009-09-03 15:44:05 12
Delete all but the latest 5 files

yes 6 (tail from 6th line)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

ls -t | tail +6 | xargs rm

negyvenot · 2009-09-16 06:33:07 3
A function to find the newest file in a directory
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

newest () { find ${1:-\.} -type f |xargs ls -lrt ; }

mobidyc · 2010-02-04 14:52:17 8
Show demo of toilet fonts

Lists a sample of all installed toilet fonts Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
                                   
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|d|i|g|i|t|a|l|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                          
               o          
 ,   __   ,_        _ _|_ 
/ \_/    /  |  |  |/ \_|  
 \/ \___/   |_/|_/|__/ |_/
                 /|       
                 \|       
```
3

find /usr/share/figlet -name *.?lf -exec basename {} \; | sed -e "s/\..lf$//" | xargs -I{} toilet -f {} {}

unixmonkey3987 · 2010-07-13 20:12:54 5
untar undo
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

tar tfz filename.tgz |xargs rm -Rf

vlan7 · 2010-07-31 14:39:21 5
run command on a group of nodes in parallel redirecting outputs

Do the same as pssh, just in shell syntax. Put your hosts in hostlist, one per line. Command outputs are gathered in output and error directories.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

xargs -n1 -P100 -I{} sh -c 'ssh {} uptime >output/{} 2>error/{}' <hostlist

dooblem · 2010-08-20 11:03:11 3
Coping files, excluding certain files

Preserve file structure when coping and exclude some file o dir patterns Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ tree
.
|-- Dir
|   |-- tw
|   |-- two
|   `-- twos
|-- first
|-- two
`-- six
$ find . ! -name 'two' | xargs -i cp --parents {} ../numbers/
$ tree
.
|-- Dir
|   |-- tw
|   `-- twos
|-- first
`-- six
```
3

find ./ ! -name 'excludepattern' | xargs -i cp --parents {} destdir

starchox · 2010-09-27 21:36:50 5
List the size (in human readable form) of all sub folders from the current location
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

du --max-depth=1|sort -n|cut -f2|tr '\n' '\0'|xargs -0 du -sh 2>/dev/null

j_melis · 2010-10-08 12:06:50 3
Adjust gamma so monitor doesn't mess up your body's clock

[UPDATE: Now works for multiple connected outputs] I woke up around midnight with an urge to do some late night hacking, but I didn't want a bright monitor screwing up my body's circadian rhythm. I've heard that at night blue (short wavelength) lights are particularly bad for your diurnal clock. That may be a bunch of hooey, but it is true that redder (longer wavelength) colors are easier on my eyes at night. This command makes the screen dimmer and adjusts the gamma curves to improve contrast, particularly darkening blues and greens (Rɣ=2, Gɣ=3, Bɣ=4). To reset your screen to normal, you can run this command: xrandr | sed -n 's/ connected.*//p' | xargs -n1 -tri xrandr --output {} --brightness 1 --gamma 1:1:1 or, more briefly, xgamma -g 1 Note: The sed part is fragile and wrong. I'm doing it this way because of a misfeature in xrandr(1), which requires an output be specified but has no programmatic way of querying available outputs. Someone needs to patch up xrandr to be shell script friendly or at least add virtual outputs named "PRIMARY" and "ALL". . Todo: Screen should dim (gradually) at sunset and brighten at sunrise. I think this could be done with a self-resubmitting at job, but I'm running into the commandlinefu 127 character limit just getting the sunrise time: wget http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_pap.pl --post-data=$(date "+xxy=%Y&xxm=%m&xxd=%d")"&st=WA&place=Seattle" -q -O- | sed -rn 's/\W*Sunrise\W*(.*)/\1/p' I hope some clever hacker comes up with a command line interface to Google's "OneBox", since the correct time shows up as the first hit when googling for "sunrise:cityname". . [Thank you to @flatcap for the sed improvement, which is much better than the head|tail|cut silliness I had before. And thank you to @braunmagrin for pointing out that the "connected" output may not be on the second line.] Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
There is no output, but here's the output from xrandr so you can see the input to the sed regex. It is simply grabbing the first word from any line that says "SUCHANDSO connected"
$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1600 x 1200, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA-0 connected 1600x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 352mm x 264mm
   1920x1440      60.0 +
   1024x768       85.0 +   85.0     75.1     75.0     70.1     60.0  
   1856x1392      60.0     60.0  
   1792x1344      60.0     60.0  
   1920x1200      59.9  
   1600x1200      85.0*    75.0     75.0     70.0     65.0     60.0  
   1680x1050      84.9     74.9     69.9     60.0  
   1600x1024      60.2  
   1400x1050      85.0     85.0     74.9     74.8     70.0     60.0     60.0  
   1280x1024      85.0     75.0     60.0  
   1440x900       84.8     75.0     59.9  
   1280x960       85.0     60.0  
   1360x768       60.0     59.8  
   1280x800       84.9     74.9     59.8  
   1152x864      100.0     85.1     85.0     75.0     75.0     70.0     60.0  
   1280x768       84.8     74.9     59.9  
   832x624        74.6  
   800x600        85.1     85.1     72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2  
   848x480        60.0  
   640x480        85.0     75.0     72.8     75.0     60.0     59.9     59.9  
   720x400        85.0     70.1  
   640x400        85.1  
   640x350        85.1  
S-video disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
```
3

xrandr | sed -n 's/ connected.*//p' | xargs -n1 -tri xrandr --output {} --brightness 0.7 --gamma 2:3:4

hackerb9 · 2010-10-24 10:45:57 10
Binary clock

displays current time in "binary clock" format (loosely) inspired by: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/59e0/ "Decoding": 8421 .... - 1st hour digit: 0 *..* - 2nd hour digit: 9 (8+1) .*.. - 1st minutes digit: 4 *..* - 2nd minutes digit: 9 (8+1) Prompt-command version: PROMPT_COMMAND='echo "10 i 2 o $(date +"%H%M"|cut -b 1,2,3,4 --output-delimiter=" ") f"|dc|tac|xargs printf "%04d\n"|tr "01" ".*"' Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
....
....
.*..
...*
```
3

echo "10 i 2 o $(date +"%H%M"|cut -b 1,2,3,4 --output-delimiter=' ') f"|dc|tac|xargs printf "%04d\n"|tr "01" ".*"

unefunge · 2010-11-24 23:49:21 6
Monitor a file with tail with timestamps added
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

tail -f file |xargs -IX printf "$(date -u)\t%s\n" X

unefunge · 2010-11-25 11:23:13 5
delete multiple files from git index that have already been deleted from disk

delete multiple files from git index that have already been deleted from disk. this is pretty terrible, I'm looking for a better way. (much better!! http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/1246/git-remove-files-which-have-been-deleted)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

git status | grep deleted | awk '{print $3}' | xargs git rm

unixmonkey15279 · 2010-12-17 02:08:55 6
View all new log messages in real time with color
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

find /var/log -iregex '.*[^\.][^0-9]+$' -not -iregex '.*gz$' 2> /dev/null | xargs tail -n0 -f | ccze -A

brejktru · 2011-04-17 18:09:25 3

rename file name with fixed length nomeric format pattern Show Sample Output

ls *.jpg | awk -F'.' '{ printf "%s %04d.%s\n", $0, $1, $2; }' | xargs -n2 mv

hute37 · 2011-05-01 13:32:58 6

easily strace all your apache *child* processes

Like the original version except it does not include the parent apache process or the grep process and adds "sudo" so it can be run by user.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

ps h --ppid $(cat /var/run/apache2.pid) | awk '{print"-p " $1}' | xargs sudo strace

colinmollenhour · 2012-03-21 01:59:41 3
route output as next command's parameters
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

<cmd> | xargs -0 <cmd>

huazhihao · 2012-09-20 06:26:36 9
Purge configuration file of all desinstalled package

From: http://www.debian-administration.org/users/fsateler/weblog/4
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

dpkg --list | grep '^rc\b' | awk '{ print $2 }' | xargs sudo dpkg -P

Zulu · 2013-03-15 23:15:35 6
Remove old kernel packages
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

dpkg -l linux-* | awk '/^ii/{ print $2}' | grep -v -e `uname -r | cut -f1,2 -d"-"` | grep -e [0-9] | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

yusufk · 2014-01-29 10:42:40 5
Delete all local git branches that have been merged

This checks if the branch has been merged with master and then will delete the ones that have been. Keeps your local git repo nice and clean from all the branches. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
-->git branch
  <BRANCH_NAME_1>
  <BRANCH_NAME_2>
  <BRANCH_NAME_3>
  <BRANCH_NAME_4>
* master


-->git branch --merged | grep -v "\*" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d
Deleted branch <BRANCH_NAME_1> (was f1b26d6).
Deleted branch <BRANCH_NAME_2> (was 5809506).
Deleted branch <BRANCH_NAME_3> (was 8e89287).
```
3

git branch --merged | grep -v "\*" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

krizzo · 2015-01-25 00:30:37 9
Find common groups between two users

Updated according to flatcap's suggestion, thanks!
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

groups user1 user2|cut -d: -f2|xargs -n1|sort|uniq -d

swemarx · 2015-03-04 19:12:27 13
Download all manuals RedHat 7 (CentOS/Fedora) with one command in Linux
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

wget -q -O- https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/ | grep Linux/7/pdf | cut -d \" -f 2 | awk '{print "https://access.redhat.com"$1}' | xargs wget

carlosesteves · 2015-05-06 15:58:43 11
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generate random password (works on Mac OS X)

Prepending env LC_CTYPE=C fixes a problem with bad bytes in /dev/urandom on Mac OS X

Find top 10 largest files in /var directory (subdirectories and hidden files included )

Same as above, but modified to show human readable output

Finding the fingerprint of a given certificate

Check if a process is running

Send signal 0 to the process. The return status ($?) can be used to determine if the process is running. 0 if it is, non-zero otherwise.

Rename files in batch

Use a var with more text only if it exists

See "Parameter Expansion" in the bash manpage. They refer to this as "Use Alternate Value", but we're including the var in the at alternative.

Archive all folders in a directory into their own tar.bz2 file

Remove the "echo" to actually archive. Many similar commands are found on commandlinefu but I end up needing this very specific one from time to time. To extract any of them, use the standard tar.bz2 extract command: $tar xvjf folder1.tar.bz2

watch snapshots commit in VMware ESX

To monitor .vmdk files during snapshot deletion (commit) on ESX only (ESXi doesn't have the watch command): 1. Navigate to the VM directory containing .vmdk files. # watch "ls -tough --full-time *.vmdk" where: -t sorts by modification time -o do not list group information (to narrow the output) -u sorts by access time -g only here for the purpose to easily remember the created mnemonic word 'tough' -h prints sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G) --full-time sets the time style to full-iso and does not list user information (to narrow the output) optionally useful parameters to the watch command: -d highlight changes between updates -n seconds to wait between updates (default is 2) -t turn off printing the header

Find and copy scattered mp3 files into one directory

I used this command to recursively gather all mp3 files that were previously imported into their own directories (sorted by band name) in Songbird.

Display Spinner while waiting for some process to finish

alternatively, run the spinner for 5 seconds: timeout 5 bash -c 'spinner=( Ooooo oOooo ooOoo oooOo ooooO oooOo ooOoo oOooo); while true; do for i in ${spinner[@]}; do for j in seq 0 ${#i}; do echo -en "\b\b"; done; echo -ne "${i}"; sleep 0.2; done; done'

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Commands using xargs (769)

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