Editing Xargs (section)

{{short description|Standard UNIX utility}}
{{lowercase title|title=xargs}}
{{Infobox software
| name                   = xargs
| logo                   = 
| screenshot             = 
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| author                 = 
| developer              = Various [[open-source software|open-source]] and [[commercial software|commercial]] developers
| released               = 
| latest release version = 
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| operating system       = [[Unix]], [[Unix-like]], [[Plan 9 from Bell Labs|Plan 9]], [[IBM i]]
| platform               = [[Cross-platform]]
| genre                  = [[Command (computing)|Command]]
| license                = 
| website                = 
}}
'''xargs''' (short for "extended arguments")<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.roesler-ac.de/wolfram/acro/all.htm|title=The Unix Acronym List: The Complete List|website=www.roesler-ac.de|access-date=2020-04-12}}</ref> is a [[Command (computing)|command]] on [[Unix]] and most [[Unix-like]] [[operating system]]s used to build and execute commands from [[Standard streams|standard input]]. It converts input from standard input into arguments to a command.

Some commands such as <code>[[grep]]</code> and <code>[[awk]]</code> can take input either as command-line arguments or from the standard input. However, others such as <code>[[Cp (Unix)|cp]]</code> and <code>[[echo (command)|echo]]</code> can only take input as arguments, which is why '''xargs''' is necessary.

A port of an older version of GNU {{Mono|xargs}} is available for [[Microsoft Windows]] as part of the [[UnxUtils]] collection of [[Native (computing)|native]] [[Windows API|Win32]] [[porting|ports]] of common GNU Unix-like utilities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/|title=Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities|website=unxutils.sourceforge.net}}</ref> A ground-up rewrite named {{Mono|wargs}} is part of the open-source TextTools<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/idigdoug/TextTools|title=Text processing tools for Windows}}</ref> project. The {{Mono|xargs}} command has also been ported to the [[IBM i]] operating system.<ref>{{cite web |title=IBM System i Version 7.2 Programming Qshell |language=en |author=IBM |author-link=IBM |url=https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_74/rzahz/rzahzpdf.pdf?view=kc |access-date=2020-09-05 }}</ref>