xargs
E301356
xargs is a Unix command-line utility that builds and executes command lines from standard input, enabling efficient batch processing of large lists of arguments.
All labels observed (2)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2792755 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: xargs Context triple: [GNU Findutils, component, xargs]
-
A.
Exec
Exec is the multitasking operating system kernel at the core of the Amiga computer platform, managing tasks, memory, and hardware resources.
-
B.
egrep
egrep is a variant of the grep command-line utility that searches text using extended regular expressions for more powerful pattern matching.
-
C.
GNU Core Utilities
GNU Core Utilities is a collection of essential command-line tools for Unix-like operating systems, providing fundamental file, text, and shell utilities widely used in GNU/Linux systems.
-
D.
BusyBox
BusyBox is a compact software suite that combines many common Unix utilities into a single executable, widely used in lightweight and embedded Linux systems.
-
E.
Shell
Shell is a major global oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, known for its extensive energy production, refining, and retail operations.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: xargs Target entity description: xargs is a Unix command-line utility that builds and executes command lines from standard input, enabling efficient batch processing of large lists of arguments.
-
A.
Exec
Exec is the multitasking operating system kernel at the core of the Amiga computer platform, managing tasks, memory, and hardware resources.
-
B.
egrep
egrep is a variant of the grep command-line utility that searches text using extended regular expressions for more powerful pattern matching.
-
C.
GNU Core Utilities
GNU Core Utilities is a collection of essential command-line tools for Unix-like operating systems, providing fundamental file, text, and shell utilities widely used in GNU/Linux systems.
-
D.
BusyBox
BusyBox is a compact software suite that combines many common Unix utilities into a single executable, widely used in lightweight and embedded Linux systems.
-
E.
Shell
Shell is a major global oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, known for its extensive energy production, refining, and retail operations.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (67)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Unix command-line utility
ⓘ
command-line tool ⓘ standard Unix program ⓘ |
| availableOn |
BSD systems
ⓘ
Linux ⓘ Unix ⓘ macOS ⓘ other POSIX-compliant systems ⓘ |
| canBeMadeSafeForFilenamesWith | -0 option ⓘ |
| canExecute | any specified command ⓘ |
| category |
Unix process control utilities
ⓘ
Unix text processing utilities ⓘ |
| commonlyUsedWith |
chmod
ⓘ
chown ⓘ cp ⓘ find ⓘ grep ⓘ mv ⓘ rm ⓘ |
| defaultCommand | echo ⓘ |
| documentation | man page xargs(1) ⓘ |
| handlesLimitation | system ARG_MAX limit ⓘ |
| hasOption |
--delimiter
ⓘ
--interactive ⓘ --max-args ⓘ --max-procs ⓘ --no-run-if-empty ⓘ --null ⓘ --verbose ⓘ -0 ⓘ -I ⓘ -L ⓘ -P ⓘ -d ⓘ -n ⓘ -p ⓘ -r ⓘ -t ⓘ |
| hasPrimaryFunction |
build command lines from standard input
ⓘ
execute commands using input as arguments ⓘ |
| implementation |
BSD userland
ⓘ
surface form:
BSD xargs
xargs self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
GNU xargs
|
| introducedIn |
POSIX
ⓘ
surface form:
POSIX.1 standard
|
| license | varies by implementation ⓘ |
| oftenCombinedWith | find -print0 ⓘ |
| partOf |
GNU Findutils
ⓘ
surface form:
GNU findutils package
POSIX utilities ⓘ Unix operating system environment ⓘ |
| readsFrom |
newline-separated items
ⓘ
standard input tokens ⓘ whitespace-separated items ⓘ |
| supportsFeature |
NUL-delimited input processing
ⓘ
controlling maximum arguments per command ⓘ controlling maximum lines per command ⓘ interactive confirmation before execution ⓘ parallel execution of multiple processes ⓘ placeholder substitution ⓘ printing commands before execution ⓘ |
| supportsInputSource |
file via redirection
ⓘ
pipe ⓘ standard input ⓘ |
| tokenizesByDefaultOn | whitespace ⓘ |
| typicalUseCase |
avoiding "argument list too long" errors
ⓘ
batch processing of large lists of arguments ⓘ parallel execution of commands ⓘ processing file lists produced by find ⓘ |
| writesTo | standard output ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: xargs Description of subject: xargs is a Unix command-line utility that builds and executes command lines from standard input, enabling efficient batch processing of large lists of arguments.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
GNU xargs