Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
Question: at what point would commands such as 'ls', 'cp' and
others consider the argument list too long? The reason I'm asking is
because I'm getting random results here. One time 'ls' would tell it
the argument list is too long when the file count in the folder
reached around 2,000 files. Another, like this morning, it let me go
all the way to 2,600+ before complaining. And just now it reached
1,900 files and already 'ls' is complaining. That seems random to
me. Is there a set number that causes all of these commands to fail
with 'Argument list too long' or what convoluted algorithm is used to
figure it out?
It is based upon a max string length, not number of files. That is the
purpose for the command xargs.
Whenever you are likely to exceed the maximum command line, put xargs in
the middle, ie:
$ find /usr/include -name \*.h -print | xargs grep SIGKILL
Does that make sense?
xargs knows what the max string length is for the system its on, and
cuts the command line into pieces accordingly and feeds it in pieces to
the arguments given.
Good Luck!
