[bug #55190] xargs documentation is confusing about the usage of -i and -I (capital i), and doesn't have any examples on this options

[Bernhard Voelker]

Follow-up Comment #1, bug #55190 (project findutils):

1)
Regarding the terms "replace" vs. "substitute": for me as non-English-native
speaker,
there's no difference between 'replace' and 'substitute.

Your example can be simplified by avoiding the files AAA.txt and BBB.txt:
it simply reads:

  $ echo line | xargs -I {} echo line2

As documented both in the man page and the Texinfo manual - and even in "xargs
--help",
the -I option works on the "initial arguments".  Looking at the synopsis
clarifies:


Usage: xargs/xargs [OPTION]... COMMAND [INITIAL-ARGS]...
...
  -I R                         same as --replace=R
  -i, --replace[=R]            replace R in INITIAL-ARGS with names read
                                 from standard input; if R is unspecified,
                                 assume {}


In your example above, the initial args is the string "line2". So there xargs
cannot replace '{}' because there is none.

2) findutils' info pages _has_ a separate node to explain -I,-e,--replace
incl. examples:

https://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/manual/html_node/find_html/Interspersing-File-Names.html#Interspersing-File-Names

With the above, do you see things in the documentation which could
be improved?  Concrete suggestions and patches welcome. ;-)

Have a nice day,
Berny

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