Re: bin/57253: xargs wraps lines after ~4k characters

[mlelstv%serpens.de@localhost (Michael van Elst)]

The following reply was made to PR bin/57253; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: mlelstv%serpens.de@localhost (Michael van Elst)
To: gnats-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: bin/57253: xargs wraps lines after ~4k characters
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2023 10:58:44 -0000 (UTC)

 marc%fege.net@localhost writes:
 
 >After a certain length of input the 'xargs' command wraps lines automatically after ARG_MAX, as it is described by the man page in paragraph "-s".
 
 >>Fix:
 >Replace ARG_MAX limitations with malloc().
 
 This won't work. The executable spawned by xargs has a limit as well
 (see NCARGS for execve(2)). Believing in infinite buffer sizes is
 always going to fail.
 
 While you could argue that ARG_MAX could at least be equal to NCARGS,
 it would often break when the passed argument(s) get expanded by the
 spawned command again.