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