[TriLUG] argument list too long

[Jon Carnes]

I think this is a limitation on how the gnu tools were compiled.  There
is a whole set of tools compiled just to handle large file systems, but
you have to have the support built into your libraries and (I think) to
your kernel.

I've run into this situation before myself, when called in to handle
mail servers gone awry. It leads you to find some very creative
work-arounds.

I like that workaround suggested by Joseph Tate:
  ls | xargs -n 1 <WHATEVER>

Quite clever that!  :-)

Jon

On Mon, 2003-08-04 at 16:51, 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