xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option












1














I'd like to count all the ordinary file on home directory with commands:



$ find ~ -type f | xargs echo | wc -w

xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option


It prompts 



xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option


What's the problem with usage?






xargs







share|improve this question






















  • Do you really want to count the total number of words in all the filenames, or do you actually want to count the number of files? if the latter, then you can avoid processing the names altogether e.g. find ~ -type f -printf 1 | wc -c (print a single - arbitrary - character for each file, and count those)
    – steeldriver
    3 hours ago


















1














I'd like to count all the ordinary file on home directory with commands:



$ find ~ -type f | xargs echo | wc -w

xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option


It prompts 



xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option


What's the problem with usage?






xargs







share|improve this question






















  • Do you really want to count the total number of words in all the filenames, or do you actually want to count the number of files? if the latter, then you can avoid processing the names altogether e.g. find ~ -type f -printf 1 | wc -c (print a single - arbitrary - character for each file, and count those)
    – steeldriver
    3 hours ago
















1












1








1







I'd like to count all the ordinary file on home directory with commands:



$ find ~ -type f | xargs echo | wc -w

xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option


It prompts 



xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option


What's the problem with usage?






xargs







share|improve this question













I'd like to count all the ordinary file on home directory with commands:



$ find ~ -type f | xargs echo | wc -w

xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option


It prompts 



xargs: unmatched single quote; by default quotes are special to xargs unless you use the -0 option


What's the problem with usage?






xargs




xargs






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked 3 hours ago









user10726006

663




663












  • Do you really want to count the total number of words in all the filenames, or do you actually want to count the number of files? if the latter, then you can avoid processing the names altogether e.g. find ~ -type f -printf 1 | wc -c (print a single - arbitrary - character for each file, and count those)
    – steeldriver
    3 hours ago




















  • Do you really want to count the total number of words in all the filenames, or do you actually want to count the number of files? if the latter, then you can avoid processing the names altogether e.g. find ~ -type f -printf 1 | wc -c (print a single - arbitrary - character for each file, and count those)
    – steeldriver
    3 hours ago


















Do you really want to count the total number of words in all the filenames, or do you actually want to count the number of files? if the latter, then you can avoid processing the names altogether e.g. find ~ -type f -printf 1 | wc -c (print a single - arbitrary - character for each file, and count those)
– steeldriver
3 hours ago






Do you really want to count the total number of words in all the filenames, or do you actually want to count the number of files? if the latter, then you can avoid processing the names altogether e.g. find ~ -type f -printf 1 | wc -c (print a single - arbitrary - character for each file, and count those)
– steeldriver
3 hours ago












1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















3














It appears that some of your filenames have apostrophes (single quote) in their names.



Luckily, find and xargs have ways around this. find's -print0 option along with xargs's -0 option produce and consume a list of filenames separated by the NUL (00) character. Filenames in Linux may contain ANY character, EXCEPT NUL and /.



So, what you really want is: 



 find ~ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty wc -w


Read man find;man xargs.






share|improve this answer





















  • find ~ -type f | wc -l will work with more files, since xargs put all arguments on one command line and there is a limit in the number of args.
    – pim
    3 hours ago












  • @pim While it may be correct that xargs can suffer from argument list too long error, in this answer -print0 and xargs -0 combination is perfectly acceptable. See unix.stackexchange.com/a/83803/85039
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    27 mins ago











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1 Answer
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1 Answer
1






active

oldest

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active

oldest

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active

oldest

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3














It appears that some of your filenames have apostrophes (single quote) in their names.



Luckily, find and xargs have ways around this. find's -print0 option along with xargs's -0 option produce and consume a list of filenames separated by the NUL (00) character. Filenames in Linux may contain ANY character, EXCEPT NUL and /.



So, what you really want is: 



 find ~ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty wc -w


Read man find;man xargs.






share|improve this answer





















  • find ~ -type f | wc -l will work with more files, since xargs put all arguments on one command line and there is a limit in the number of args.
    – pim
    3 hours ago












  • @pim While it may be correct that xargs can suffer from argument list too long error, in this answer -print0 and xargs -0 combination is perfectly acceptable. See unix.stackexchange.com/a/83803/85039
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    27 mins ago
















3














It appears that some of your filenames have apostrophes (single quote) in their names.



Luckily, find and xargs have ways around this. find's -print0 option along with xargs's -0 option produce and consume a list of filenames separated by the NUL (00) character. Filenames in Linux may contain ANY character, EXCEPT NUL and /.



So, what you really want is: 



 find ~ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty wc -w


Read man find;man xargs.






share|improve this answer





















  • find ~ -type f | wc -l will work with more files, since xargs put all arguments on one command line and there is a limit in the number of args.
    – pim
    3 hours ago












  • @pim While it may be correct that xargs can suffer from argument list too long error, in this answer -print0 and xargs -0 combination is perfectly acceptable. See unix.stackexchange.com/a/83803/85039
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    27 mins ago














3












3








3






It appears that some of your filenames have apostrophes (single quote) in their names.



Luckily, find and xargs have ways around this. find's -print0 option along with xargs's -0 option produce and consume a list of filenames separated by the NUL (00) character. Filenames in Linux may contain ANY character, EXCEPT NUL and /.



So, what you really want is: 



 find ~ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty wc -w


Read man find;man xargs.






share|improve this answer












It appears that some of your filenames have apostrophes (single quote) in their names.



Luckily, find and xargs have ways around this. find's -print0 option along with xargs's -0 option produce and consume a list of filenames separated by the NUL (00) character. Filenames in Linux may contain ANY character, EXCEPT NUL and /.



So, what you really want is: 



 find ~ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty wc -w


Read man find;man xargs.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 3 hours ago









waltinator

21.9k74169




21.9k74169












  • find ~ -type f | wc -l will work with more files, since xargs put all arguments on one command line and there is a limit in the number of args.
    – pim
    3 hours ago












  • @pim While it may be correct that xargs can suffer from argument list too long error, in this answer -print0 and xargs -0 combination is perfectly acceptable. See unix.stackexchange.com/a/83803/85039
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    27 mins ago


















  • find ~ -type f | wc -l will work with more files, since xargs put all arguments on one command line and there is a limit in the number of args.
    – pim
    3 hours ago












  • @pim While it may be correct that xargs can suffer from argument list too long error, in this answer -print0 and xargs -0 combination is perfectly acceptable. See unix.stackexchange.com/a/83803/85039
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    27 mins ago
















find ~ -type f | wc -l will work with more files, since xargs put all arguments on one command line and there is a limit in the number of args.
– pim
3 hours ago






find ~ -type f | wc -l will work with more files, since xargs put all arguments on one command line and there is a limit in the number of args.
– pim
3 hours ago














@pim While it may be correct that xargs can suffer from argument list too long error, in this answer -print0 and xargs -0 combination is perfectly acceptable. See unix.stackexchange.com/a/83803/85039
– Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
27 mins ago




@pim While it may be correct that xargs can suffer from argument list too long error, in this answer -print0 and xargs -0 combination is perfectly acceptable. See unix.stackexchange.com/a/83803/85039
– Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
27 mins ago


















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