Add Command Line Line Length Limitations as a unix til

README.md

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ variety of languages and technologies. These are things that don't really
 warrant a full blog post. These are mostly things I learn by pairing with
 smart people at [Hashrocket](http://hashrocket.com/).
 
-_374 TILs and counting..._
+_375 TILs and counting..._
 
 ---
 
@@ -324,6 +324,7 @@ _374 TILs and counting..._
 - [Change Default Shell For A User](unix/change-default-shell-for-a-user.md)
 - [Check If A Port Is In Use](unix/check-if-a-port-is-in-use.md)
 - [Clear The Screen](unix/clear-the-screen.md)
+- [Command Line Length Limitations](unix/command-line-length-limitations.md)
 - [Copying File Contents To System Paste Buffer](unix/copying-file-contents-to-system-paste-buffer.md)
 - [Create A File Descriptor with Process Substitution](unix/create-a-file-descriptor-with-process-substitution.md)
 - [Curling With Basic Auth Credentials](unix/curling-with-basic-auth-credentials.md)

unix/command-line-length-limitations.md

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# Command Line Length Limitations
+
+The other day I tried to run a remove command on the contents of a directory
+with a **LOT** of files.
+
+```
+$ rm images/*
+```
+
+Instead of deleting the contents of the directory, the following message was
+displayed:
+
+```
+/bin/rm: cannot execute [Argument list too long]
+```
+
+Bash wanted to expand the entire command before executing it. It was too
+long. But what is too long?
+
+It turns out that we can figure out the max length of commands with the
+following command:
+
+```
+$ getconf ARG_MAX
+```
+
+For me, the result is `262144`.
+
+[source
+1](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11289551/argument-list-too-long-error-for-rm-cp-mv-commands)
+and [source
+2](http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/argument-list-too-long-error-solution/)