Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!virtech!cpcahil
From: cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Can U pipe filenames to rm???
Message-ID: <1990Sep29.121038.27374@virtech.uucp>
Date: 29 Sep 90 12:10:38 GMT
References: <28790001@col.hp.com> <1990Sep29.001151.11544@diku.dk>
Reply-To: cpcahil@virtech.UUCP (Conor P. Cahill)
Organization: Virtual Technologies Inc., Sterling VA
Lines: 19

In article <1990Sep29.001151.11544@diku.dk> kimcm@diku.dk (Kim Christian Madsen) writes:
>
>If you're sure the output of the ninstall does not exceed the limit of
>what the shell you're using can handle (Bourne shell usually 5Kbytes),
>you can use the following approach:
>
>	ninstall .... | xargs rm

No.  xargs was specifically written to handle the argument count and length
limits for command executions.  What it will do is run the rm command
multiple times (each with the maximum number of arguments that do not
exceed the limitations).



-- 
Conor P. Cahill            (703)430-9247        Virtual Technologies, Inc.,
uunet!virtech!cpcahil                           46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160
                                                Sterling, VA 22170