> Can someone explain to me why xargs(1) does not support using newline > as a separators, when that is one of the most common unix separators?
Because then you don't need xargs, normal tooling seperates each line into a seperate argv entry regardless of other spacing. You are proposing an incompatible extension to a POSIX defined utility. Meaning if someone uses this in a script, it won't work on other systems. Not everything in unix is perfect. > I'm pasting one potential approach to the end of this message. There's > a few issues that might be stalling points: > > (*) which command line option to be used (this gets into potential > conflicts with other versions). > > (*) how to handle (or not handle) escape characters (my feeling is > that escaping newline characters would be a bad thing when using > newline as a separator). > > (*) code neatness and style issues. > > But, anyways, given the problems that arise from xargs space handling > being "too smart", and given how often spaces get included in file and > directory names, it seems like newline separated records should have > been a no-brainer back like 20 years ago, if not earlier. So > presumably someone has at some point squashed efforts to fix this. > > So, I guess I might be looking for the reasons. Does anyone know? > > Thanks, > > -- > Raul > > --- xargs.c.orig 2017-10-13 14:13:16.000000000 -0400 > +++ xargs.c 2017-10-13 14:13:17.000000000 -0400 > @@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ > static char **av, **bxp, **ep, **endxp, **xp; > static char *argp, *bbp, *ebp, *inpline, *p, *replstr; > static const char *eofstr; > -static int count, insingle, indouble, oflag, pflag, tflag, Rflag, rval, > zflag; > +static int count, insingle, indouble, oflag, pflag, tflag, Rflag, > rval, zflag, lflag; > static int cnt, Iflag, jfound, Lflag, wasquoted, xflag, runeof = 1; > static int curprocs, maxprocs; > static size_t inpsize; > @@ -174,6 +174,9 @@ > case '0': > zflag = 1; > break; > + case '/': > + lflag = 1; > + break; > case '?': > default: > usage(); > @@ -262,7 +265,7 @@ > if (insingle || indouble) > goto addch; > hasblank = 1; > - if (zflag) > + if (zflag || (lflag && '\n'==ch)) > goto addch; > goto arg2; > } > @@ -282,6 +285,8 @@ > goto arg2; > goto addch; > case '\n': > + if (lflag) > + goto arg2; > hasblank = 1; > if (hadblank == 0) > count++; > @@ -360,19 +365,19 @@ > wasquoted = 0; > break; > case '\'': > - if (indouble || zflag) > + if (indouble || zflag || lflag) > goto addch; > insingle = !insingle; > wasquoted = 1; > break; > case '"': > - if (insingle || zflag) > + if (insingle || zflag || lflag) > goto addch; > indouble = !indouble; > wasquoted = 1; > break; > case '\\': > - if (zflag) > + if (zflag || lflag) > goto addch; > /* Backslash escapes anything, is escaped by quotes. */ > if (!insingle && !indouble && (ch = getchar()) == EOF) >
