Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi
From: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: folding arguments
Summary: doing it efficiently is harder
Message-ID: <2091@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 12 Feb 88 15:14:46 GMT
References: <3822@megaron.arizona.edu> <120@gsg.UUCP>
Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 22

In article <120@gsg.UUCP> lew@gsg.UUCP (Paul Lew) writes:
>     $ find $DIR -print | awk '{print "command",$0}' | sh	(flexible)
>or:
>     $ find $DIR -print | sed 's/^/command /' | sh		(fast)

Me, I prefer:

     $ find $DIR -exec command {} \;

However, the original poster wanted to give the command as many
arguments as possible, so it would be invoked less often, presumably
because efficiency was important to him.  Something like the original
fa, which folds argument lists into manageable size, is essential
in that case.  In a pinch I would try something like this:

     $ find $DIR -print | nroff | sed -e 's/  */ /g' | ...

Since nroff right-justifies by default, we use sed to squeeze multiple
blanks to a single blank so "while read" in sh will work.  (Not
tested.)
-- 
Rahul Dhesi         UUCP:  <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee,uunet}!bsu-cs!dhesi