A mostly complete implementation of xargs in python with some added features
Project description
pyxargs
Purpose
This began as a solution to the encoding problem with xargs (additional reference). It eventually grew as I found being able to quickly mix python code with command lines and files to be useful.
Most of xargs functionality has been implemented, however the original focus with fixing the encoding problem via the file input-mode, not to be confused with arg-file, remains. The goal is not to replace xargs but to compliment it for slightly different, and more modern use cases, therefore not all features are included, such as max-lines or max-args.
Going forward development will slow with no major features or changes planned, with the main focus being on having a clear and stable command line interface and documentation. However bugs are still planned to be fixed as soon as possible whenever they are discovered and any new & interesting pythonic features may be considered depending on usefulness and scope.
Command Line Interface
usage: pyxargs [options] command [initial-arguments ...]
pyxargs [options] -s "command [initial-arguments ...]" ...
pyxargs -h | --help | --examples | --version
Build and execute command lines or python code from standard input or file
paths, a mostly complete implementation of xargs in python with some added
features. The default input mode (file) builds commands using filenames only
and executes them in their respective directories, this is useful when dealing
with file paths containing multiple character encodings.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--examples print example usage
-s support for multiple commands to be run sequentially
by encapsulating in quotes (each its own string)
-b base-directory default: os.getcwd()
-m input-mode options are:
file = build commands from filenames and execute in
each subdirectory respectively (default)
path = build commands from file paths relative to
the base directory and execute in the base
directory
abspath = build commands from file paths relative to
root and execute in the base directory
dir = build commands from directory names instead
of filenames
stdin = build commands from standard input and
execute in the base directory
-0, --null input items are terminated by a null character instead
of by whitespace, sets input-mode=stdin
-d delim input items are terminated by the specified delimiter
instead of whitespace and trailing whitespace is
removed, sets input-mode=stdin
-a arg-file read input items from arg-file instead of standard
input to build commands, sets input-mode=stdin
-E eof-str ignores any input after eof-str, sets input-mode=stdin
-c max-chars omits any command line exceeding max-chars, no limit
by default
-I replace-str replace occurrences of replace-str in the command(s)
with input, default: {}
--resub pattern repl replace-str
replace occurrences of replace-str in the command(s)
with re.sub(patten, repl, input)
-r regex only build commands from inputs matching regex
-o omit inputs matching regex instead
-f only match regex against filenames, ignoring full
paths (if available)
--py executes command(s) as python code using exec()
--pyev evaluates command(s) as python expression(s) using
eval()
--import library [library ...]
executes 'import <library>' for each library
--importstar library [library ...]
executes 'from <library> import *' for each library
--pre "code" ["code" ...]
runs exec(code) for each line of code before execution
--post "code" ["code" ...]
runs exec(code) for each line of code after execution
-P max-procs number of processes, default: 1
-p, --interactive prompt the user before executing each command, only
proceeds if response starts with 'y' or 'Y'
-n, --norun prints commands without executing them
-v, --verbose prints commands before executing them
-w, --csv writes results to pyxargs-<yymmdd-hhmmss>.csv in
os.getcwd()
--version print version number
Examples
comparing usage with find & xargs
find ./ -name "*" -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -I {} echo {}
find ./ -name "*" -type f -print0 | pyxargs -0 -I {} echo {}
find ./ -name "*" -type f -print0 | pyxargs -0 echo {}
pyxargs -m path echo ./{}
pyxargs -m path --py "print('./{}')"
note: pyxargs requires a replace-str ({} in this example) to insert inputs,
inputs are not appended in the absence of a replace-str like in xargs,
this also implies the equivalent of xargs --max-lines=1
use -- to separate options with multiple optional arguments from the command
pyxargs --pre "print('spam')" "print('spam')" -- echo {}
or separate with another option (they are parsed with argparse)
pyxargs --pre "print('this is fine too')" -P 1 echo {}
the command takes all remaining arguments, so this will not work
pyxargs echo {} --pre "print('this statement will be echoed')"
however pipes and redirects still work
pyxargs echo {} > spam.txt
multiple commands can be used as such
pyxargs -s "echo No 1. {}" "echo And now... No 2. {}"
regular expressions can be used to filter and modify inputs
pyxargs -r \.py --resub \.py .txt {} echo {}
the original inputs can easily be used with the subsituted versions
pyxargs -r \.py --resub \.py .txt new echo {} new
and now for something completely different, python code
pyxargs --pre "n=0" --post "print(n,'files')" --py n+=1
a best effort is made to avoid side effects by executing in its own namespace
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