Replacement for xargs -d in osx

Question

In Linux, you can use xargs -d, to quickly run the hostname command against four different servers with sequential names as follows:

echo -n 1,2,3,4 |xargs -d, -I{} ssh root@www{}.example.com hostname

It looks like the OSX xargs command does not support the delimiter parameter. Can you achieve the same result with a differently formatted echo, or through some other command-line utility?

slhck · Answer 1 · 2020-04-24T13:57:46.593

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Alternatively, you can always install GNU xargs through Homebrew and the GNU findutils package.

Install Homebrew:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Follow the instructions. Then install findutils:

brew install findutils

This will give you GNU xargs as gxargs, and you can use the syntax you're accustomed to from GNU/Linux. The same goes for other basic commands found in the findutils package such as gfind or glocate or gupdatedb, which have different BSD counterparts on OS X.

edited Apr 24 '20 at 13:57

answered Aug 28 '12 at 08:52

slhck

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Thank you! I did this, then added the path to my `.zshrc` (as explained in the installation output) so I wouldn't have to use the `g` prefix. – absynce Aug 15 '19 at 18:25
ha yiss exactly what I was looking for – Jean-Bernard Jansen Apr 24 '20 at 13:24

score 20 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 28 '12 at 08:49

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How about:

echo {1..4} | xargs -n1 -I{} ssh root@www{}.example.com hostname

From man xargs:

-n number
Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for each invocation of utility.

edited Aug 28 '12 at 08:49

slhck

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answered Aug 28 '12 at 02:56

Gordon Davisson

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If the values can contain spaces, linefeeds, or tabs, you could use something like `printf 'a\0a' | xargs -0 -n1 echo`. – Lri Oct 18 '12 at 07:20
this doesn't work with gnu xargs, ie, all of debian `https://asciinema.org/a/jfqOwiRpH6IFGZDrPTo0qQTNf`. Shame! Shame! ;) – christian elsee May 17 '22 at 20:57
as a bonus, you can also add `-P n` which will parallelize it. Since it's all IO, this can be helpful. So, `-P 4` – Christian Bongiorno Jun 23 '23 at 16:11

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 21 '19 at 14:55

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You can also use tr in OSX to convert the commas to new lines and use xargs to enumerate through each item as follows:

echo -n 1,2,3,4 | tr -s ',' '\n' | xargs -I{} ssh root@www{}.example.com hostname

answered Sep 21 '19 at 14:55

John

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 03 '13 at 00:18

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If you want it run in parallel, use GNU Parallel:

parallel ssh root@www{}.example.com hostname ::: {1..4}

answered Jan 03 '13 at 00:18

Ole Tange

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xargs does with with `-P` – Christian Bongiorno Jun 23 '23 at 16:14

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 24 '20 at 04:04

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with printf

$ printf '%s\n' 1 2 3 4 | xargs -I{} echo ssh root@www{}.example.com hostname
ssh root@www1.example.com hostname
ssh root@www2.example.com hostname
ssh root@www3.example.com hostname
ssh root@www4.example.com hostname

answered Jan 24 '20 at 04:04

christian elsee

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Replacement for xargs -d in osx

5 Answers5