Argument list too long.

[Sean Estabrooks]

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 18:23:15 +0200 (CEST)
Dag Wieers <dag at wieers.com> wrote:


> Here's the link again:
> 
> 	Linux Journal: "Argument list too long": Beyond Arguments and Limitations                                     
> 	http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6060
> 
> Read the article and especially the comments. xargs was already mentioned

yup, read it

> >    It usually doesn't take much effort to organize things so that this 
> > just isn't an issue.   Perhaps if you posted a real script where you
> > are having problems, suggestions could be made on alternative 
> > methods.
> 
> Sure, you can always organize things so that this just isn't an issue. But 
> if working around something takes increasingly more time than just 
> executing the command, there's something wrong IMO.

The command line is for people of a certain type who can work
these little issues out for themselves.   If it is a recurring problem 
you simply make a script to deal with it..   Tada... *nix already
has everything you need... you just have to be willing to use it ;o)

> 
> I just gave you an example where it isn't very practical to use xargs 
> because you have to type your passphrase multiple times. Automating that 
> however would make it even more ugly, and all that because I can only have 

Yeah. you gave a theoretical example.   Do you have one from your own
experience that actually matters to you?   I've been doing this alot of years
and i can count on one hand the number of times this has been an issue
for me.

> 128Kb in arguments. You see how silly computers can be ;)
> 

lol... well you got me there.

Cheers,
Sean