xargs with functions

xargs with functions

[Ray Andrews]

Is there some way to throw one's entire setup to xargs?
If I want to use a shell function with xargs I hafta do this:

    $ls * | xargs ./test

Where 'test' contains:

     # re-source my functions
     for aa in /aWorking/Zsh/Source/*;  do source $aa; done

        #call my 'l' function.
     l ,s "$@"

Is there a way to pass the functions forward every time automatically,
so that I can:

     ls * | xargs l ,s

Or maybe some other solution? It seems clumsy. I understand that subshells
receive the environment, but not functions, why is that? Perhaps what's
needed is some way to make the subshell run .zshrc automatically? Or am
I barking up the wrong tree as usual?

Re: xargs with functions

[Axel Beckert]

Hi Ray,

On Mon, Nov 17, 2014 at 10:24:42AM -0800, Ray Andrews wrote:
> Is there a way to pass the functions forward every time automatically,
> so that I can:
> 
>     ls * | xargs l ,s

xargs is not from zsh but a binary (/usr/bin/xargs in my case) which
is called. And that binary likely calls 'exec "$@"' and not 'exec
$SHELL -c "$@"'

But zsh's zargs seems to support functions (but not aliases). Try this:

% autoload -U zargs
% zargs -- * -- l ,s

HTH

		Kind regards, Axel
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Re: xargs with functions

[Ray Andrews]

On 11/17/2014 10:40 AM, Axel Beckert wrote:

Axel,

     But zsh's zargs seems to support functions (but not aliases). Try 
this: % autoload -U zargs % zargs -- * -- l ,s

Not too shabby! This worked:

     $zargs -- `ls -1` -- l ,s

'piped' output of  'ls -1' to my function 'l'.
But this is what I've done previously:


      $l ,s `ls -1`

... which is more compact.  Is there any reason to prefer zargs? Perhaps 
it can swallow
more complex input?