Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpcc05!hpyhde4!hpycla!hpcuhc!hpcupt3!shankar
From: shankar@hpcupt3.cup.hp.com (Shankar Unni)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: HP-720 vs IBM-320 vs Sparc2
Message-ID: <48580035@hpcupt3.cup.hp.com>
Date: 13 Jun 91 07:29:49 GMT
References: <1991Jun6.151807.670@idaho.uucp>
Organization: HP India Software Op., Bangalore
Lines: 25

In comp.sys.hp, martelli@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Alex Martelli) writes:

> Etc etc, well I have a constructive suggestion for you here, use xargs(1): it
> will read, for example, filenames from standard input, and pass them on as
> commandline arguments in manageable chunks, e.g.:

> 	ls|grep '\.f$'|xargs f77 -c

Ah, but beware of xargs. You can't use it, for example, in a Makefile,
because:

   - it will terminate abnormally only if its command argument terminates
     with -1. No other exit value will cause it to abort.

   - it returns 1 if it could not execute the command, or if the command
     returned -1.  Else, it returns 0. Always. Regardless of whether any
     of its invocations of the command failed.

This bit one of our customers recently. I couldn't believe it until I read
the relevant XOPEN page, but there it was.  However, it does make a weird
kind of sense.
-----
Shankar Unni                                   E-Mail:
HP India Software Operation, Bangalore       Internet: shankar@india.hp.com
Phone : +91-812-261254 x417                      UUCP: ...!hplabs!hpda!shankar