xargs and Parallel Execution

xargs Basics

Read from stdin and pass as arguments to a command:

# Basic usage: pass stdin lines as arguments
echo "file1.txt file2.txt" | xargs rm

# -I {} sets a placeholder for each input line
cat urls.txt | xargs -I {} curl -O {}

# -n controls how many arguments per command invocation
echo "a b c d e f" | xargs -n 2 echo
# Output:
# a b
# c d
# e f