Bandwidth Wasters Hall of Fame - The Code

[Paul Dubuc]

In article <1618 at tellab5.tellabs.CHI.IL.US> toth at tellab5.tellabs.CHI.IL.US (Joseph G. Toth Jr.) writes:
}In article <4254 at wpi.wpi.edu>, jdutka at wpi.wpi.edu (John Dutka) writes:
}> I couldn't get the csh script to work on our system for
}> /usr/spool/news/comp/sys/mac - the program said the argument was too long -
}> any suggestions/help from anyone?
}> 
}
}I havn't looked at the source for the script, but;
}
}This comes from the fact that Unix(tm), at some point, creats a command
}with a list of parameters (filenames) to provide a list to the executed
}program.  The list is built on the prefix and meta character specifications.
} ...
}It might be possible to modify the script to 'cd <dirname>;cmd *'
}or 'pushd <dirname>;cmd *;popd' (if available) to expand the command
}line as;
}   <cmd> f1 f2 f3 ... fx
}
}and eliminate the long prefix on each file entry in the list to be
}processed.

A more permanent solution to this would be to use xargs(1).
-- 
Paul Dubuc   |   "To consider persons and events and
att!asr1!pmd |   situations only in the light of their
	     |   effect upon myself is to live on the
	     |   doorstep of hell"	Thomas Merton