CODEWITHSUNDEEP
shellunix
user8588509
user8588509

Reputation:

Argument list too long from shell script

one case: I wrote script on tsch that invoke other script on python. When I invoke python script from cmd , it is OK. When I invoke test script on tsch then I get error: Argument list too long

Another case:

git grep -e "alex" -- `git ls-files | grep -v 'bin'`

I also get error: Argument list too long. What can problem and How to solve it ?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 4197

Answers (2)

yanyingwang
yanyingwang

Reputation: 137

for somebody comes here who need to do something like this:

./shell_script.sh param1

but it raises error Argument list too long from shell script of param1. I just run into this, and fix it by a workaround of using the shell variable.

# calling the PARAM1 instead of $1 in code of shell_script.sh
export PARAM1=param1 ./shell_script.sh

an example of a ruby version of transferring string to nodejs:

ENV["PARAM1"]="a_bunch_of_test_string_as_longer_as_you_can"
`node node_script.sh`

var param1 = process.env.PARAM1;
console.log(param1);

Upvotes: 0

Mark Setchell
Mark Setchell

Reputation: 207335

Updated Answer

I'm not familiar with the specific git commands you are using and you don't seem to be replying sensibly to the questions in the comments either. I guess you probably want something like this though:

git ls-files | grep -v 'bin' | xargs -L 128 git grep -e "alex" --

Original Answer

The classic way to solve "error: Argument list too long" is with xargs. It can be used to repeatedly call a script whose name you provide, or echo if you don't provide one, with a limited number of arguments till the arguments are all consumed.

So, imagine you have a million files in a directory, then ls * will fail, however a simple ls will work. So, we can put that to use with:

ls | xargs -L 128

which will call echo (because we didn't provide a utility name) repeatedly with 128 filenames at a time till all are echoed.

So, you could do:

ls | xargs -L 128 yourScript.py

to call your Python script repeatedly with 128 filenames at a time. Of course you may be doing something completely different and incompatible with this technique but your answers are not very helpful so far...

Upvotes: 1

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