xargs process string as multiple arguments

Question

Linux GNU xargs

I have the file doit with

arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4
arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4

I want to perform

command arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4
command arg2 arg2 arg3 arg4

What I can't figure out is how to do this with xargs

If one does xargs -a doit -I % command %

It runs

command 'arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4'

i.e run command with the first argument = 'arg1 arg2 ....'

I think you are using the wrong tool. xargs is meant to gather an unknown amount of arguments from STDIN or a file, and run a command an unknown amount of times. You know exactly how many arguments you have and how many times to run your command. — Kevin Panko, Feb 25, 2014 at 17:39
@KevinPanko not quite correct. I ran into this use-case, where I know I have N number of lines, each containing 2 args. So I want to be able to expand string into multiple args (by space, using regular bash semantics) before passing it into cmd. xargs doesn't seem to do that — ffledgling, Jun 5, 2019 at 19:26

Ole Tange · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-25 17:56:22Z

0

If you use GNU Parallel you can do:

parallel -a doit eval command

or:

parallel -a doit --colsep ' ' command

To learn more: Watch the intro video for a quick introduction: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL284C9FF2488BC6D1 and walk through the tutorial (man parallel_tutorial). You command line with love you for it.

answered Feb 25, 2014 at 17:56

Ole Tange

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