# Linux commands: xargs

> Learn how the Linux xargs command turns the output of one command into arguments for another, like piping cat into rm, plus the handy -p and -n options.

Author: Flavio Copes | Published: 2020-10-08 | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/linux-command-xargs/

The `xargs` command is used in a UNIX shell to convert input from standard input into arguments to a command.

In other words, through the use of `xargs` the output of a command is used as the input of another command.

Here's the syntax you will use:

```bash
command1 | xargs command2
```

We use a pipe (`|`) to pass the output to `xargs`. That will take care of running the `command2` command, using the output of `command1` as its argument(s).

Let's do a simple example. You want to remove some specific files from a directory. Those files are listed inside a text file.

We have 3 files: `file1`, `file2`, `file3`.

In `todelete.txt` we have a list of files we want to delete, in this example `file1` and `file3`:

![Terminal showing ls command with files file1, file2, file3, todelete.txt and cat command displaying todelete.txt contents](https://flaviocopes.com/images/linux-command-xargs/Screen_Shot_2020-09-08_at_07.45.28.png)

We will channel the output of `cat todelete.txt` to the `rm` command, through `xargs`.

In this way:

```bash
cat todelete.txt | xargs rm
```

That's the result, the files we listed are now deleted:

![Terminal after running xargs rm showing file1 and file3 deleted, with only file2 and todelete.txt remaining](https://flaviocopes.com/images/linux-command-xargs/Screen_Shot_2020-09-08_at_07.46.39.png)

The way it works is that `xargs` will run `rm` 2 times, one for each line returned by `cat`.

This is the simplest usage of `xargs`. There are several options we can use.

One of the most useful in my opinion, especially when starting to learn `xargs`, is `-p`. Using this option will make `xargs` print a confirmation prompt with the action it's going to take:

![Terminal showing xargs -p option with confirmation prompt asking rm file1 file3](https://flaviocopes.com/images/linux-command-xargs/Screen_Shot_2020-09-08_at_08.19.09.png)

The `-n` option lets you tell `xargs` to perform one iteration at a time, so you can individually confirm them with `-p`. Here we tell `xargs` to perform one iteration at a time with `-n1`:

![Terminal showing xargs -p -n1 option with individual confirmation prompt asking rm file1](https://flaviocopes.com/images/linux-command-xargs/Screen_Shot_2020-09-08_at_08.32.58.png)

The `-I` option is another widely used one. It allows you to get the output into a placeholder, and then you can do various things.

One of them is to run multiple commands:

```bash
command1 | xargs -I % /bin/bash -c 'command2 %; command3 %'
```

![Terminal showing xargs -I option with placeholder running multiple commands ls and rm with confirmation prompt](https://flaviocopes.com/images/linux-command-xargs/Screen_Shot_2020-09-08_at_08.35.37.png)

> You can swap the `%` symbol I used above with anything else, it's a variable

The `xargs` command works on Linux, macOS, WSL, and anywhere you have a UNIX environment