Practical UNIX

Chapter 11. Generating and Using File Lists

Steve “Mor” Moritsugu

Creating file lists by using filename generation wildcards Checking which commands allow file lists Handling the filename wildcard error arg list too long Creating file lists by using backquotes Handling the backquotes error No Space Using xargs to process really long lists of files

Tip for Beginners Don’t start this chapter until you are comfortable with the basic file commands in Chapters 7, “Listing and Finding Directories and Files”; 8, “Displaying and Printing Files and Pipelines”; and 9, “Copying, Moving, Renaming, Removing, or Linking Files.” This chapter augments those file commands by teaching you how to easily specify lists of files to process. This chapter gives ...