xargs and my own script

harmster · 05-07-2005, 09:04 AM

Hi all,

I'm experiencing a really annoying problem. I have this directory structure, pulled from an svn server, which contains in some directories a zip file. This needs to be unzipped. I came up with this:

Code:

ls -R | grep zip | xargs locate | grep zip$ | xargs ./unzip.sh

The contents of my own unzip.sh script:

Code:

unzip -f -d `dirname $1` $1

What it is meant to do is get all zip files and unpack them in the directory where you found them. What it DOES is get the first found zip file and correctly unpacks it and then STOPS! It is driving me mad fast.
This just works:

Code:

ls -R | grep zip | xargs locate | grep zip$ | xargs

Replacing the content of the unzip.sh file to echo $1 just echos the first argument again!
Can somebody help me?

Vookimedlo · 05-07-2005, 10:10 AM

Code:

find `pwd` -type f -name "*.zip" -print0 | xargs -iXX -0 ./unzip.sh XX

mcosta · 05-07-2005, 10:12 AM

This is:

Code:

find . -name '*.zip'  -exec ./unzip.sh '{}' \;

Or

Code:

find . -name '*.zip' | xargs ./unzip-all.sh

with unzip-all.sh:

Code:

while [ -z "$1" ]; do
    unzip -f -d `dirname $1` $1
    shift
done

the -exec option of 'find' calls the command one at once, say 5 files -> 5 execs . xargs calls with the full input, say 5 files -> 5 args. That's the cause the unzip.sh only decompress the first one, only looks for $1, and the rest are in $2, $3...etc. The shift command makes $1=$2, $2=$3...etc. So you can process a variable number of args, just shift until $1 is empty.

Have you understanded the issue? do not hesitate to ask

harmster · 05-07-2005, 11:14 AM

I don't quite get the first reply (why the -iXX?) or the first snibblet of code from the second ('{}'?) but it all makes sense now! Thank you both for you fast replies.

Vookimedlo · 05-07-2005, 11:35 AM

-iXX says to xargs: replace XX with real argument
{} says to find: replace {} with result of find utility