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From: Ralf Damaschke <rwspam@gmx.de>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: IFS=$'\n'
Date: 14 Aug 2024 22:55:40 GMT
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Christian Weisgerber wrote:

> If sufficiently many files accrue, find(1) will invoke ls(1) several
> times, which will not produce the expected result.  That may be unlikely
> in this specific example, but it can happen in the general case.
> 
> Wait, you say, xargs(1) will also split its input across multiple
> invocations.  I mean, that's very much the point of xargs.  Which is why
> Helmut added the -x flag, which is supposed to prevent this behavior.

I see the point, but I hope I never meet a use case that says
"do something with the files found, but throw the list away if it can't
be done all at once". I would rather first assemble the list, try to execute
the command with it and if needed switch to some different approach of
handling the files.