xargs

Pass standard input as arguments to a command.

command | xargs target-command

Use the -I option to insert input values into a placeholder {}.

command | xargs -I{} target-command {}

Use the -n option to limit the number of arguments passed at once.

command | xargs -n count target-command

Use the -P option to run in parallel.

command | xargs -P num-processes -I{} target-command {}

Handle filenames with spaces or newlines safely (-0).

find . -name "*.txt" -print0 | xargs -0 target-command

The examples below use this directory structure.

Pass the results of find to another command via xargs. This example deletes all .log files.

find . -name "*.log" | xargs rm

If file paths may contain spaces or special characters, use -print0 with -0.

find . -name "*.log" -print0 | xargs -0 rm

Use -I{} with a placeholder to rename files one by one.

ls *.txt | xargs -I{} mv {} {}.bak

Combine find and grep to search across multiple files.

find . -name "*.php" | xargs grep -l "TODO"
./src/index.php
./src/utils.php

Use -n N to limit how many arguments are passed at once.

echo "a b c d e f" | xargs -n 2 echo
a b
c d
e f

Use -t to print each command before it runs. This is handy for debugging.

echo "file1 file2 file3" | xargs -t -n 1 echo
echo file1
file1
echo file2
file2
echo file3
file3

Use -P N to process files N at a time in parallel. This example compresses files using 4 parallel processes.

ls *.csv | xargs -P 4 -I{} gzip {}

This example downloads URLs from a list using 5 parallel processes.

cat urls.txt | xargs -P 5 -I{} wget -q {}

Common Mistake 1: Filenames with spaces are split into multiple arguments

By default, xargs splits input on whitespace. A filename like my file.txt is treated as two separate arguments: my and file.txt.

find . -name "*.txt" | xargs rm
rm: cannot remove 'my': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove 'file.txt': No such file or directory

Use -print0 and -0 to separate entries with null characters instead of whitespace.

find . -name "*.txt" -print0 | xargs -0 rm

Common Mistake 2: xargs still runs the command even when input is empty

When the input to xargs is empty, it runs the command with no arguments by default. This can have unexpected side effects depending on the command.

echo "" | xargs rm
rm: missing operand

Use --no-run-if-empty (GNU) or -r to skip execution when there is no input.

find . -name "*.tmp" -print0 | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty rm

When file paths may contain spaces or special characters, find -print0 | xargs -0 is essential. Using null characters as delimiters lets you handle any filename safely.

The -P option makes full use of your CPU by running tasks in parallel. It is especially effective for independent tasks such as compressing, converting, or downloading multiple files. For more on pipes and redirection, see Pipe (|).