Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!att!cbnews!pmd From: pmd@cbnews.ATT.COM (Paul Dubuc) Newsgroups: alt.sources Subject: Re: Bandwidth Wasters Hall of Fame - The Code Message-ID: <9797@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 28 Sep 89 15:13:15 GMT References: <1618@tellab5.tellabs.CHI.IL.US> Reply-To: pmd@cbnews.ATT.COM (Paul Dubuc,59474,cb,3E355,6148607836) Distribution: alt Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 27 In article <1618@tellab5.tellabs.CHI.IL.US> toth@tellab5.tellabs.CHI.IL.US (Joseph G. Toth Jr.) writes: }In article <4254@wpi.wpi.edu>, jdutka@wpi.wpi.edu (John Dutka) writes: }> I couldn't get the csh script to work on our system for }> /usr/spool/news/comp/sys/mac - the program said the argument was too long - }> any suggestions/help from anyone? }> } }I havn't looked at the source for the script, but; } }This comes from the fact that Unix(tm), at some point, creats a command }with a list of parameters (filenames) to provide a list to the executed }program. The list is built on the prefix and meta character specifications. } ... }It might be possible to modify the script to 'cd;cmd *' }or 'pushd ;cmd *;popd' (if available) to expand the command }line as; } f1 f2 f3 ... fx } }and eliminate the long prefix on each file entry in the list to be }processed. A more permanent solution to this would be to use xargs(1). -- Paul Dubuc | "To consider persons and events and att!asr1!pmd | situations only in the light of their | effect upon myself is to live on the | doorstep of hell" Thomas Merton