linux의 xargs 명령어는 출력된 결과를 인자값으로 이용하여 다른 명령어를 활용할 수 있게 만들어 주는 명령어입니다.

$> find /etc -name "*.conf" | xargs ls -l

위 명령어는 /etc 경로 밑에 있는 .conf로 끝나는 모든 파일을 찾은 다음 파이프(|)를 통해 xargs에 인자값으로 넘겨 주고 ls -l 명령어를 통해서 출력하도록 하는 조합입니다.

응용으로 다음 처럼 특정 파일들만 찾은 후에 파일을 압축하는데 사용할 수도 있습니다.

$> find ~/Downloads -name "*.jpg" -type f | xargs tar -cvzf jpg-images.tar.gz

help xargs

$> xargs --help
Usage: xargs [OPTION]... COMMAND [INITIAL-ARGS]...
Run COMMAND with arguments INITIAL-ARGS and more arguments read from input.

Mandatory and optional arguments to long options are also
mandatory or optional for the corresponding short option.
  -0, --null                   items are separated by a null, not whitespace;
                                 disables quote and backslash processing and
                                 logical EOF processing
  -a, --arg-file=FILE          read arguments from FILE, not standard input
  -d, --delimiter=CHARACTER    items in input stream are separated by CHARACTER,
                                 not by whitespace; disables quote and backslash
                                 processing and logical EOF processing
  -E END                       set logical EOF string; if END occurs as a line
                                 of input, the rest of the input is ignored
                                 (ignored if -0 or -d was specified)
  -e, --eof[=END]              equivalent to -E END if END is specified;
                                 otherwise, there is no end-of-file string
  -I R                         same as --replace=R
  -i, --replace[=R]            replace R in INITIAL-ARGS with names read
                                 from standard input; if R is unspecified,
                                 assume {}
  -L, --max-lines=MAX-LINES    use at most MAX-LINES non-blank input lines per
                                 command line
  -l[MAX-LINES]                similar to -L but defaults to at most one non-
                                 blank input line if MAX-LINES is not specified
  -n, --max-args=MAX-ARGS      use at most MAX-ARGS arguments per command line
  -P, --max-procs=MAX-PROCS    run at most MAX-PROCS processes at a time
  -p, --interactive            prompt before running commands
      --process-slot-var=VAR   set environment variable VAR in child processes
  -r, --no-run-if-empty        if there are no arguments, then do not run COMMAND;
                                 if this option is not given, COMMAND will be
                                 run at least once
  -s, --max-chars=MAX-CHARS    limit length of command line to MAX-CHARS
      --show-limits            show limits on command-line length
  -t, --verbose                print commands before executing them
  -x, --exit                   exit if the size (see -s) is exceeded
      --help                   display this help and exit
      --version                output version information and exit

Please see also the documentation at http://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/.
You can report (and track progress on fixing) bugs in the "xargs"
program via the GNU findutils bug-reporting page at
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils or, if
you have no web access, by sending email to <bug-findutils@gnu.org>.

tldr xargs

$> tldr xargs

  xargs

  Execute a command with piped arguments coming from another command, a file, etc.
  The input is treated as a single block of text and split into separate arguments on spaces, tabs, newlines and end-of-file.

  - Main usage pattern:
    arguments_source | xargs command

  - Delete all files with a .backup extension. -print0 on find uses a null character to split the files, and -0 changes the delimiter to the null character (useful if there's whitespace in filenames):
    find . -name '*.backup' -print0 | xargs -0 rm -v

  - Execute the command once for each input line, replacing any occurrences of the placeholder (here marked as _) with the input line:
    arguments_source | xargs -I _ command _ optional_extra_arguments

  - Parallel runs of up to max-procs processes at a time; the default is 1. If max-procs is 0, xargs will run as many processes as possible at a time:
    arguments_source | xargs -P max-procs command