Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 21:06:30 -0600 From: Brad Huntting <huntting@glarp.com> To: Brian Dean <bsd@bsdhome.com> Cc: "Rodney W. Grimes" <freebsd@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net>, Jens Schweikhardt <schweikh@schweikhardt.net>, freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: cp -d dir patch for review (or 'xargs'?) Message-ID: <200104210306.f3L36UM59719@hunkular.glarp.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 20 Apr 2001 22:39:43 EDT." <20010420223943.A59039@vger.bsdhome.com>
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> Try: > > echo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | xargs -n 4 echo > > Now consider what would happen with the above suggested construct with > a very long file list. > > I don't see a problem with adding an option to cp to treat the first > argument as the target instead of the last argument. It's a simple > solution, the code change is simple, and it produces the exact desired > result. What's the problem? Unfortunatly, cp is not alone in needing this feature. I think a more sensable approach would be to add an "append args" flag to xargs. For example "--", which could be used like so: xargs cp -- destdir <<EOF first_file second_file third file EOF would run cp 'first_file' 'second_file' 'third file' destdir to pass an argument of two or more dashes to the command, add an extra dash like so: xargs echo -- foo --- bar ------ bar <<EOF first_file second_file third file EOF would run echo 'first_file' 'second_file' 'third file' foo -- bar ----- bar You get the idea. brad To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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