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user10726006
Asked: 2019-01-04 21:07:11 +0800 CST

xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option

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I'd like to count all the ordinary file on home directory with commands:

$ find ~ -type f | xargs echo | wc -w
xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option

It prompts 

xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option

What's the problem with usage?

xargs

1 Answers

  1. It appears that some of your filenames have apostrophes (single quote) in their names.

    Luckily, find and xargs have ways around this. find's -print0 option along with xargs's -0 option produce and consume a list of filenames separated by the NUL (\000) character. Filenames in Linux may contain ANY character, EXCEPT NUL and /.

    So, what you really want is: 

     find ~ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty wc -w

    Read man find;man xargs.

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