Look! An xargs!! (Re: recursive grep)

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <2415 at wyse.wyse.com> bob at wyse.UUCP (Bob McGowen Wyse Technology Training) writes:
>I would also like to know the circumstances which prompt you to state that
>xargs will do nothing when there are a lot of "arguments".

Nothing has ever prompted me to state that!  What I said was, your attempted
example of an xargs replacement had that problem.  I don't see the point of
an xargs replacement that didn't add SOMEthing beyond simply typing the
desired command to the shell in the first place, and your script in effect
was a somewhat elaborate implementation of the shell's `` facility, with
the additional feature that it would not even attempt to run a command
under precisely the circumstances that lead one to choose to use xargs.

Why not simply write a genuine xargs implementation, say in C where you
can do it right without a lot of hassle.