Re: xargs documentation

[Andreas Metzler]

On 2005-08-28 Eric Blake <address@hidden> wrote:
> The documentation for xargs could use several improvements.  The Invoking
> `xargs' section of the info pages do not mention -E or -L, and implies
> that -I's argument is optional when it is not.

Hello,
Oh joy. I should have read POSIX more diligently before submitting the
patch for the documentation. I'll try to provide an update.

[...]
> It also fails to mention that -L and -n are mutually exclusive, and that
> since -i/-I implies -L1, that the use of -i and -n is order-dependent.  As
> an example,

> $ echo -e '1\n2' | xargs -i -n 2 echo {}
> {} 1 2
> $ echo -e '1\n2' | xargs -n 2 -i echo {}
> 1
> 2

Yes, the whole area is documented quite sparse, as I found out in
http://bugs.debian.org/325005 however I think Jay might change xargs'
behavior to a more sane one.
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-findutils/2005-06/msg00150.html>
                cu andreas
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