[TriLUG] argument list too long

[Steven Hilton]

I've had to grep through directories like that. 
My quick way to do it is:

[big_dir]$ grep blah *
argument list too long
[big_dir]$ cd ..
[up_dir]$ grep -r blah big_dir

but xargs is prolly preferrable. maybe I should change my habit.

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
-- 
Steven Hilton <mshiltonj at mshiltonj.com>
<http://mshiltonj.com/>

    "It is the duty 
     of the patriot 
     to protect his country 
     from its government." 
               -- Paine