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Dealing With “Argument list too long” Errors on Linux and Unix

[ Thanks to Mike
Golvach
for this link. ]

“It’s probably happened to all of us at some point, but
it’s fairly simple to avoid, and in more than one way. I’m almost
positive, even though I know this stuff, that I’ll get that error
message again at some point in the future. My mind is a terrible
thing 😉

“The way I try to keep on top of avoiding that error (which,
admittedly, isn’t all that terrible, assuming its not a predicating
factor in a script – like, you don’t have any action is your script
that might do something destructive if you don’t check for errors)
is a basic two-prong approach. First, I’ll try to figure out what
kind of limitations my system can stand. Secondly, I try to stick
to some basic methods that guarantee I won’t run into the issue no
matter what my system’s maximum argument length is. Of course, the
second part obviates the first part, but I’m a curious guy (take
that whatever way you want ;)”


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