How can I pass the results of a command to another?

The xargs program passes the outputs of one command as arguments to another one.

The following is an example of processing the results of find using xargs:

find . -name <pattern> -print0 | xargs -0 -I {} <command with {} as an argument>

find -print0 and xargs -0 make find and xargs handle files with unusual characters in their names properly.

References

• http://linux.byexamples.com/archives/80/xargs-use-stardard-output-as-parameter-for-another-command
• http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-unix-bsd-xargs-construct-argument-lists-utility/
• http://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/manual/html_mono/find.html#Unusual-Characters-in-File-Names