Bill Campbell wrote:
>
>> There are two possible buffer limits one could encounter: tty driver
>> input line buffer (which is not an issue for bash because readline
>> avoids it) and kernel exec space for the arguments plus environment
>> passed to a new process. Only the second one causes the error message
>> that started this thread, and previous posts have pointed out that
>> recent Linux kernels have effectively removed that limit (see message
>>from Jeremy Sanders).
>
> While current Linux kernels may have removed the limit,
It's probably a mistake to say that the limit is removed. I think this
change just moves the limiting factor elsewhere - to the RAM or virtual
memory that happens to be available.
> this has
> been a common issue on all *nix systems for decades, which is why
> xargs was written.
Recognizing that you do not have infinite buffer space available is a
good thing. Keep using xargs.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell at gmail.com