From 8576445e17fa45311306524a1c4c3989cdb279f9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: terminalforlife <terminalforlife@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2020 03:39:19 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Improve wording & code readability of xargs

I've also un-squished flags & their arguments to avoid confusion.
---
 sheets/xargs | 44 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)

diff --git a/sheets/xargs b/sheets/xargs
index 5751f5f..5e21e22 100644
--- a/sheets/xargs
+++ b/sheets/xargs
@@ -1,26 +1,32 @@
-# Find all file names ending with .pdf and remove them
+# xargs
+# Build and execute command lines from standard input
+
+# Find all file names ending with .pdf, then remove them.
 find -name \*.pdf | xargs rm
-# The above, however, is preferable written without xargs:
+# The above, however, is better-written without xargs:
 find -name \*.pdf -exec rm {} \+
-# Or, for find's own functionality, it's best as:
+# Although it's best to use find's own functionality, in this situation.
 find -name \*.pdf -delete
 
-# Find all file name ending with .pdf and remove them
-# (bulletproof version: handles filenames with \n and skips *.pdf directories)
-# -r = --no-run-if-empty
-# -n10 = group by 10 files
-find -name \*.pdf -type f -print0 | xargs -0rn10 rm
+# Find all file names ending with '.pdf' and remove them. This approach also
+# handles filenames with '\n' and skips '*.pdf' directories. The xargs(1) flag
+# `-r` is equivalent to `--no-run-if-empty`, and the use of `-n` will in this
+# case group execution by 10 files.
+find -name \*.pdf -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -r -n 10 rm
 
-# If file name contains spaces you should use this instead
-find -name \*.pdf | xargs -I{} rm -rf '{}'
+# If file names may contains spaces, you can use the xargs(1) flag `-I` and its
+# proceeding argument to specify the filename placeholder, as in find(1)'s use
+# of `{}` in `-exec`. Although find(1)'s `{}` needs not be cuddled by quotes, -
+# xargs(1) does.
+find -name \*.pdf | xargs -I {} rm -r '{}'
 
-# Will show every .pdf like:
-#    &toto.pdf=
-#    &titi.pdf=
-# -n1 => One file by one file. ( -n2 => 2 files by 2 files )
-find -name \*.pdf | xargs -I{} -n1 echo '&{}='
-# The above is, however, much faster and easier without xargs:
-find -name \*.pdf -printf "%p\n"
+# Print a list of files in the format of `*FILE=`. The use of xargs(1) flag
+# `-n` here with its argument of `1` means to process the files one-by-one.
+find -name \*.pdf | xargs -I {} -n 1 echo '&{}='
+# The above is, however, much faster, more efficient, and easier without xargs.
+find -name \*.pdf -printf '&%f=\n'
 
-# Group words by three in a string
-seq 1 10 | xargs -n3
+# Group words by three in a string.
+seq 1 10 | xargs -n 3
+# Alternatively, and more efficiently, use Bash brace expansion, if available.
+printf '%d ' {1..10} | xargs -n 3