Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!mtune!whuts!homxb!hropus!jgy
From: jgy@hropus.UUCP (John Young)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: folding arguments
Message-ID: <44@hropus.UUCP>
Date: 12 Feb 88 15:23:21 GMT
References: <3822@megaron.arizona.edu>
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 20

> I frequently do stuff like
> 
> $ command `find $DIR -print`
> 
> which bombs out when I find too many files.  I've written a little program
> that lets me do
> 
> $ find $DIR -print | fa | while read x; do command $x; done
> 
> Im willing to post it since it might be useful to others but first I'd like
> to know if you've got a better solution.  
> 

Yes, on System V you can say:

$ find $DIR -print | xargs command

xargs will read it's standard input and by default execute 'command'
with as many arguments as can fit.  As usual there are an array of
other options.