Robin Laing wrote:
>> Just out of curiosity, what sort of apps are you thinking of that
>> have problems with xargs? Are you talking about apps that call out
>> to a shell and don't take care not to pass more than ARG_MAX? Or
>> are there apps that just can't use xargs for some reason?
>
> Applications that call another routine or process files in the
> background. I don't know if they have a problem with xargs but they
> have a problem with "Argument list too long" errors when using them.
> How do you call xargs from a GUI application?
I don't know this for sure, but I thought that this only applied to
things that called out via a shell (which can include software that
uses a system() call to run a shell process). [I'd definitely
appreciate correction on this, as I could be wildly off-base and I
don't want to pass off bad information as fact.]
> The easiest headache to describe for me is usenet binary posts read
> in Pan. Some people will post a binary file that is 2000 or 3000
> parts, though small but still numerous. With the file name lengths
> and whatever else is needed for Pan to join and/or decode the files,
> I get error messages or crashes. This is in the background so I
> don't know what happens that causes it.
I don't use pan (or usenet :) so I don't know exactly where to look.
If you can find the precise error message pan gives (and/or what you
click on that causes the errors and the crash), it might help narrow
it down.
> I have tried to use xargs before but not much luck. Lack of time to
> play and learn how to pipe everything in the correct way. I have
> only learned about xargs a short while ago.
Check out the archives, Steven W. Orr has posted numerous times with
good examples of xargs usage (I think he may be part of some shady
xargs cult ;).
If that doesn't help out, post an example of what you need to do with
the news files and I'm sure more than a few people here can offer
suggestions.
> My point in my other post is for new users, this is a real pain to
> deal with. In this day and age, it shouldn't be an issue as memory
> is now much cheaper and larger than the days when this limit was put
> into place.
That seems reasonable. I'm not sure why it was rejected upstream, but
I'd guess it has to do with compatibility? And I'm sure that there
are ways to code apps to not have this problem, which is more likely
what should be fixed. Definitely, end-users shouldn't see this sort
of thing from a GUI app. CLI users just need to learn to love xargs.
--
Todd OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they
foul up, there's no law against whacking them around a little.
-- Eric Porterfield
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