[TriLUG] argument list too long

[Joseph Tate]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

ls * is expanded by the shell.  Bash generally limits the length of a 
command to something rediculously long, but with that many files you're 
going over that limit if you try to use any type of wildcard.  You can 
ls | xargs -n 1 <WHATEVER> if you need to do stuff on lots of files.

Mike Norwood wrote:

|Also, how come just "ls" in that directory works, but "ls *" gets this
|error message?
|
|On Mon, 4 Aug 2003, Mike Norwood wrote:
|
|>Hello,
|>
|>I have a directory on a Redhat 7.2 machine that has over 11000 files in
|>it.  If I try to ls, cp, mv or rm this I get a message "Argument list too
|>long".  I can do what I need to do with the files in other ways, but I am
|>just curious is there a way to get past this.  I did some google searches,
|>but can't find anything that clearly says what causes this limit and if
|>there is a way to expand it.
|>
|>Thanks in advance.
|>
|>Mike Norwood
|>
|>
|
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (Cygwin)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iQCVAwUBPy7MaIj0CKOSIRGqAQLczgP+I9JbOr0vYAZ9BfXM34kVIhswRj6qM2cN
nfe4X1EZoWVDAfWSNCUVTjsZ8EgeveMxnsa7oNM/uDXWWtJVj6pH45er7Cn0FHfu
r7ZlcMJdZ++hkDuzHQxs6QFNcZ9nLxIMgUCezAf6UBGFRt6LrVEoEN9lj1T4gyKU
mbcCSOxUr/Y=
=xhYW
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----