On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 9:32 AM, Jude DaShiell<jdash...@shellworld.net> wrote: > Apparently argument list too long is an operating system error. I made it > happen with ed too. I can divide and conquer though by limiting argument > lists with regular expressions in this case.
That's always an option, or you could use xargs. Argument list too long is utlimately a kernel limitation. Your example worked on my ubuntu system - but there are 8400 some odd files in that directory, and that's a pretty big argument list. Historically, the linux kernels have been compiled with a fairly large size for the command line - usually on the order of 128K or so, which should be ample. I thought it might be shell-dependent, but it isn't (ubuntu default shell seems to be "dash" but executing the command under bash resulted in the same output.) Evidently, the kernel that's in Jaunty must be compiled with a higher limit for this buffer than the one in Debian squeeze. > > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject > of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org > > -- thanks for letting me change the magnetic patterns on your hard disk. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
