/bin/cat: Argument list too long

bishop2001 · 02-09-2016, 12:08 PM

Greetings,
I have a command that looks like the following:
cat /someDir/alotOFFiles/* | grep something | sed something > saveResult.log

I am getting the message /bin/cat: Argument list too long.
How can I get this working? I see that xargs may work, but what would the command look like?
Thanks

grail · 02-09-2016, 12:22 PM

How about a simple for loop?

I would also suggest ditching grep as sed already has this ability.

Habitual · 02-09-2016, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bishop2001

cat /someDir/alotOFFiles/* | grep something | sed something > saveResult.log

Man, that's ugly.

"Useless use of cat". It's a "thing"
See also http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplan...orials/6522/1/

NevemTeve · 02-09-2016, 01:41 PM

Maybe sg like this (untested):

Code:

( find . -print0 | xargs -0 cat -- ) |\
grep something | sed something > saveResult.log

OregonJim · 02-21-2016, 03:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NevemTeve

Maybe sg like this (untested):

Code:

( find . -print0 | xargs -0 cat -- ) |\
grep something | sed something > saveResult.log

The cat would be unnecessary as grep can take the filename argument (and for that matter sed can take the place of both cat and grep)...

NevemTeve · 02-21-2016, 07:26 AM

Yes but the following commands give different outputs:

Code:

cat /etc/passwd /etc/motd | grep 'a'
grep 'a' /etc/passwd /etc/motd

rknichols · 02-21-2016, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NevemTeve

Yes but the following commands give different outputs:

Code:

cat /etc/passwd /etc/motd | grep 'a'
grep 'a' /etc/passwd /etc/motd

Yes, you need to use "grep -h" when there are multiple input files and you do not want to see the file names in the output.[QUOTE=NevemTeve;5503722]Yes but the following commands give different outputs:

Code:

cat /etc/passwd /etc/motd | grep 'a'
grep -h 'a' /etc/passwd /etc/motd