recursive globbing, filename spaces and xargs

recursive globbing, filename spaces and xargs

[William Scott]

Hi:

One of the things that I haven't been able to figure
out is how to deal with the error one gets when using

ls **/*

on a well-populated directory with lots of subdirectories.

zsh: argument list too long

If I do this when there are no filename spaces, it works:

echo **/*  | xargs ls

but if there are spaces, it fails, and I can't seem to figure
out how to quote or escape the spaces.

Any suggestions, or should I stick to find?

Thanks.

Bill Scott

Re: recursive globbing, filename spaces and xargs

[Bart Schaefer]

On Jan 17,  7:14am, William Scott wrote:
} 
} ls **/*
} 
} zsh: argument list too long

Depending on your version of zsh, you may find that a function called
"zargs" comes with the distribution.  It's designed precisely for this.
Look in "man zshcontrib" or the function definition file itself for
documentation.

Re: recursive globbing, filename spaces and xargs

[Christian Schneider]

* William Scott <wgscott@chemistry.ucsc.edu> typed:
> One of the things that I haven't been able to figure
> out is how to deal with the error one gets when using
> 
> ls **/*
> 
> on a well-populated directory with lots of subdirectories.
> 
> zsh: argument list too long
> 
> If I do this when there are no filename spaces, it works:
> 
> echo **/*  | xargs ls
> 
> but if there are spaces, it fails, and I can't seem to figure
> out how to quote or escape the spaces.

You can use `zargs' to do this:
 $ autoload -U zargs
 $ zargs -- ls **/*
Read ``less ${^fpath}/zargs(N)'' for more details. HTH.
-- 
http://www.strcat.de/zsh/#features [*] Christian 'strcat' Schneider
http://www.strcat.de/zsh/#tipps    [*] Email.......: strcat@gmx.net
http://www.strcat.de/zsh/#modex    [*] GPG-ID......:       47E322CE
http://www.strcat.de/zsh/#links    [*] [zsh - the Z shell]

Re: recursive globbing, filename spaces and xargs

[Philippe Troin]

William Scott <wgscott@chemistry.ucsc.edu> writes:

> Hi:
> 
> One of the things that I haven't been able to figure
> out is how to deal with the error one gets when using
> 
> ls **/*
> 
> on a well-populated directory with lots of subdirectories.
> 
> zsh: argument list too long
> 
> If I do this when there are no filename spaces, it works:
> 
> echo **/*  | xargs ls
> 
> but if there are spaces, it fails, and I can't seem to figure
> out how to quote or escape the spaces.
> 
> Any suggestions, or should I stick to find?

print -N **/* | xargs -0 ....

Phil.

Re: recursive globbing, filename spaces and xargs

[William Scott]

That works.  Many thanks.

> print -N **/* | xargs -0 ....
>

Re: recursive globbing, filename spaces and xargs

[Stephane Chazelas]

On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 05:15:49PM -0800, Philippe Troin wrote:
[...]
> > echo **/*  | xargs ls
> > 
> > but if there are spaces, it fails, and I can't seem to figure
> > out how to quote or escape the spaces.
> > 
> > Any suggestions, or should I stick to find?
> 
> print -N **/* | xargs -0 ....

That would still fail for filenames with backslashes or starting
with "-".

print -rN -- **/* | xargs -r0 ls -d --

Or
autoload -U zargs
zargs ./**/* -- ls -d

-- 
Stéphane