If the point of this note is to get your pipeline to work, would it help
if you added something like "-n 30" to the xargs command? This should
execute one instance of 'grep -l -e "error '1234567890'"' for every 30
lines of output from the previous pipe entry.
$ echo path/* | \
tr ' ' '\n' | \
grep -v -e '\*' | \
xargs -r grep -l -e "error '1234567890'" | \
rest_of_pipe
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Buchbinder,
> Barry (NIH/NIAID) [E]
> Sent: Friday, December 08, 2006 10:05 AM
> To: cygwin@cygwin.com
> Subject: xargs gives grep/gawk too much
>
> I get the following error message:
> xargs: grep: Argument list too long
> I've also gotten an equivalent error from xargs/gawk.
>
> Of course, the whole idea of xargs is to avoid this error.
> If I'm doing something wrong, I'd appreciate some hints of
> what I am doing wrong or how to avoid this (other than "-s").
> Otherwise, I suppose that this is a bug report.
>
> The grep pipe, run under bash, that generates the error message is as
> follows:
>
> $ echo path/* | \
> tr ' ' '\n' | \
> grep -v -e '\*' | \
> xargs -r grep -l -e "error '1234567890'" | \
> rest_of_pipe
>
> Asking xargs to report on its limits:
>
> $ echo path/* | \
> tr ' ' '\n' | \
> xargs --show-limits grep -e I_do_not_want_output
> Your environment variables take up 2174 bytes
> POSIX lower and upper limits on argument length: 2048, 1046528
> Maximum length of command we could actually use: 1044354
> Size of command buffer we are actually using: 34942
>
> Everything should be up to date. cygcheck.out is attached.
> Let me know if you want any other information.
>
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