Re: newbie - questions about "rm"

On 2006-12-27, dave8421@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi,

I've read that 'xargs' should be used with 'rm' when using a list of
files too large for 'rm' to process.

I'm wondering why 'rm' doesn't just accept a list of files as a command
line argument,

It does, but if therre are a lot of files, it may exceed the
system limit.

Also, if the output is redirected from another command, is there a lot
of overhead using a program like xargs, since it is calling the program
multiple times? Is this considered to be efficient way of processing
arguments, or is there a better way?

xargs puts as many arguments on the command line as the system
will allow, so that the command is called the fewest possible
number of times.

--
Chris F.A. Johnson, author | <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
Shell Scripting Recipes: | My code in this post, if any,
A Problem-Solution Approach | is released under the
2005, Apress | GNU General Public Licence
.

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