xargs seems to be consuming stdin

[jarun]

While trying to read some filenames from a file and removing them interactively, xargs seem to be consuming stdin. So the interactive mode doesn't work:

u0_a117@localhost ~/G/nnn> xargs -0 -a ~/.nnncp rm -ir
rm: remove '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/GitHub/nnn/nnn'? ⏎                                            u0_a117@localhost ~/G/nnn>

u0_a117@localhost ~/G/nnn> xargs -0 -a ~/.nnncp rm -ir
rm: remove '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/GitHub/nnn/CHANGELOG'? rm: remove '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/GitHub/nnn/LICENSE'? rm: remove '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/GitHub/nnn/Makefile'? ⏎
u0_a117@localhost ~/G/nnn>

However, as the input is from a file (using option -a) this should work as it does on all Linux (Tested on Ubuntu and the Linux subsystem for Windows).

[ghost]

@jarun Have you tried to use the following command ? (with -d '\n')

xargs -0 -a ~/.nnncp -d '\n' rm -ir

[Grimler91]

And are you using xargs from the package findutils or from busybox?

[jarun]

I have installed the Termux app from Google Play. So it's the default one.

[jarun]

Yes, it seems to be the one from BusyBox:

u0_a117@localhost ~/G/nnn> xargs -h
xargs: invalid option -- h
BusyBox v1.29.2 (2018-08-30 09:16:36 UTC) multi-call binary.

Usage: xargs [OPTIONS] [PROG ARGS]

Run PROG on every item given by stdin

	-p	Ask user whether to run each command
	-r	Don't run command if input is empty
	-0	Input is separated by NUL characters
	-a FILE	Read from FILE instead of stdin
	-t	Print the command on stderr before execution
	-e[STR]	STR stops input processing
	-n N	Pass no more than N args to PROG
	-s N	Pass command line of no more than N bytes
	-I STR	Replace STR within PROG ARGS with input line
	-P N	Run up to N PROGs in parallel
	-x	Exit if size is exceeded
u0_a117@localhost ~/G/nnn>

[jarun]

Yes, the one from findutils fixes this. Thanks you!

[jarun]

@fornwall can we have findutils as a dependency for nnn? It would make cp, mv, rm work on Termux.

[jarun]

@xeffyr I saw your question now. That won't work as my strings are NUL-terminated. There's no LF as filenames can have LF.

[jarun]

Thanks for the PR @xeffyr!

[fornwall]

The updated package (version 2.1-1) which requires findutils is now available for installation!