[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Why xargs still call the command when there is no input?
From: |
Morgan Weetman |
Subject: |
Re: Why xargs still call the command when there is no input? |
Date: |
Tue, 2 Jun 2015 18:50:59 -0400 (EDT) |
Hi Peng,
if you read the man page the behaviour is defined (note the "one or more
times"):
---------------------
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
---------------------
So basically your command below will call 'ls' once with no arguments and
display the contents of the current directory
thanks
----- Original Message -----
> From: "Peng Yu" <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Sent: Wednesday, 3 June, 2015 8:02:19 AM
> Subject: Why xargs still call the command when there is no input?
>
> The following command will call ls. But since there is no input,
> shouldn't xargs quit without doing anything? Thanks.
>
> xargs -0 ls </dev/null
>
> --
> Regards,
> Peng
>
>