Re: Could ARG_MAX be increased?

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004 14:42:11 +0200
"Simon L. Nielsen" <simon_at_FreeBSD.org> wrote:
> On 2004.09.23 21:46:48 +0300, Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
> > On 2004-09-23 14:28, Garance A Drosihn <drosih_at_rpi.edu> wrote:
> > > I have nothing against the idea of increasing the value of MAX_ARGS,
> > > as long as people realize that increasing it will not solve the issue
> > > for all situations.
> > 
> > Yeah.  I think the real answer is to learn about find as you and others
> > have suggested.
> 
> While it is correct that find is the best solution e.g. when
> scripting, it can be a PITA e.g. when moving a lot of files that you
> have to use find/xargs instead of simply "mv bla.*.1 dir/".  I know
> how to use find, but it takes somewhat longer to type...
> 
> Just my 0.02(insert local currency).
> 
> Anyway, I'm probably just going to bump MAX_ARGS locally on my next
> world rebuild :-).
> 
> -- 
> Simon L. Nielsen
> FreeBSD Documentation Team
> 
Many simple cases go with echo instead of find, so that the stupid
"-maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1" phrase can be eliminated.

E.g., following lines are equivalent in sh and t?csh:

% mv bla.*.1 dir/
% echo bla.*.1|xargs -J% mv % dir/

Or even to (override 5000 limit may be necessary):

% echo bla.*.1 dir/|xargs mv


Hope this reduces your typing efforts.


horio shoichi