Editing Xargs (section)

==={{code|-I}} option: single argument===
The '''xargs''' command offers options to insert the listed arguments at some position other than the end of the command line. The <code>-I</code> option to '''xargs''' takes a string that will be replaced with the supplied input before the command is executed. A common choice is <code>%</code>.
<syntaxhighlight lang="shell-session">
$ mkdir ~/backups
$ find /path -type f -name '*~' -print0 | xargs -0 -I % cp -a % ~/backups
</syntaxhighlight>

The string to replace may appear multiple times in the command part. Using {{code|-I}} at all limits the number of lines used each time to one.