xargs用作替換工具，讀取輸入數據重新格式化後輸出。

			
定義一個測試檔案，內有多行文本數據：

cat >> test.txt <<EOF

a b c d e f g
h i j k l m n
o p q
r s t
u v w x y z

EOF

# cat test.txt 

a b c d e f g
h i j k l m n
o p q
r s t
u v w x y z


多行輸入一行輸出：

# cat test.txt | xargs
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

等效
# cat test.txt | tr "\n" " "
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

-n選項多行輸出：

# cat test.txt | xargs -n3
a b c
d e f
g h i
j k l
m n o
p q r
s t u
v w x
y z
# cat test.txt | xargs -n4
a b c d
e f g h
i j k l
m n o p
q r s t
u v w x
y z
# cat test.txt | xargs -n5
a b c d e
f g h i j
k l m n o
p q r s t
u v w x y
z


-d選項可以自定義一個定界符：

# echo "name|age|sex|birthday" | xargs -d"|"
name age sex birthday

結合-n選項使用：

# echo "name=Neo|age=30|sex=T|birthday=1980" | xargs -d"|" -n1
name=Neo
age=30
sex=T
birthday=1980			
			
			

			
# xargs < test.txt 
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z		
		
# cat /etc/passwd | cut -d : -f1 > users
# xargs -n1 < users echo "Your name is"
Your name is root
Your name is bin
Your name is daemon
Your name is adm
Your name is lp
Your name is sync
Your name is shutdown
Your name is halt
Your name is mail
Your name is operator
Your name is games
Your name is ftp
Your name is nobody
Your name is dbus
Your name is polkitd
Your name is avahi
Your name is avahi-autoipd
Your name is postfix
Your name is sshd
Your name is neo
Your name is ntp
Your name is opendkim
Your name is netkiller
Your name is tcpdump		
			
			

複製所有圖片檔案到 /data/images 目錄下：

ls *.jpg | xargs -n1 -I cp {} /data/images
			

			
讀取stdin，將格式化後的參數傳遞給命令xargs的一個選項-I，使用-I指定一個替換字元串{}，這個字元串在xargs擴展時會被替換掉，當-I與xargs結合使用，每一個參數命令都會被執行一次：

# echo "name=Neo|age=30|sex=T|birthday=1980" | xargs -d"|" -n1 | xargs -I {} echo "select * from tab where {} "
select * from tab where name=Neo 
select * from tab where age=30 
select * from tab where sex=T 
select * from tab where birthday=1980 

# xargs -I user echo "Hello user" <users 
Hello root
Hello bin
Hello daemon
Hello adm
Hello lp
Hello sync
Hello shutdown
Hello halt
Hello mail
Hello operator
Hello games
Hello ftp
Hello nobody
Hello dbus
Hello polkitd
Hello avahi
Hello avahi-autoipd
Hello postfix
Hello sshd
Hello netkiller
Hello neo
Hello tss
Hello ntp
Hello opendkim
Hello noreply
Hello tcpdump