Usage of enclosing braces {} as arguments to commands and their options
Examples
I've recently found examples of using pairs of enclosing braces {}
, with nothing in between the opening and closing braces, as arguments to commands and even to their options:
cat foo | xargs -I{} echo {}
find . -size 0 -exec rm -i {} ;
No Documentation
My problem is that I cannot find a documentation in the GNU Bash Manual that describes the usage of {}
in such context as in the examples above.
I do not think it is a parameter expansion, because a dollar sign must precede the enclosing braces in a parameter expansion as in ${}
.
It cannot be a brace expansion either, because it takes the form of {x..y[..incr]}
, where x
and y
are not optional.
It also cannot be a command grouping either, because {}
is used as arguments.
Questions
What does a pair of enclosing braces
{}
even mean, in general, as an argument to any command that accepts it?Where can I find a documentation that describes the usage of
{}
as arguments?
bash shell
New contributor
add a comment |
Examples
I've recently found examples of using pairs of enclosing braces {}
, with nothing in between the opening and closing braces, as arguments to commands and even to their options:
cat foo | xargs -I{} echo {}
find . -size 0 -exec rm -i {} ;
No Documentation
My problem is that I cannot find a documentation in the GNU Bash Manual that describes the usage of {}
in such context as in the examples above.
I do not think it is a parameter expansion, because a dollar sign must precede the enclosing braces in a parameter expansion as in ${}
.
It cannot be a brace expansion either, because it takes the form of {x..y[..incr]}
, where x
and y
are not optional.
It also cannot be a command grouping either, because {}
is used as arguments.
Questions
What does a pair of enclosing braces
{}
even mean, in general, as an argument to any command that accepts it?Where can I find a documentation that describes the usage of
{}
as arguments?
bash shell
New contributor
Some commands have this options{}
- meaningtargets
to act on, withfind
command, it's remove/rm
found files.
– Tuyen Pham
3 hours ago
add a comment |
Examples
I've recently found examples of using pairs of enclosing braces {}
, with nothing in between the opening and closing braces, as arguments to commands and even to their options:
cat foo | xargs -I{} echo {}
find . -size 0 -exec rm -i {} ;
No Documentation
My problem is that I cannot find a documentation in the GNU Bash Manual that describes the usage of {}
in such context as in the examples above.
I do not think it is a parameter expansion, because a dollar sign must precede the enclosing braces in a parameter expansion as in ${}
.
It cannot be a brace expansion either, because it takes the form of {x..y[..incr]}
, where x
and y
are not optional.
It also cannot be a command grouping either, because {}
is used as arguments.
Questions
What does a pair of enclosing braces
{}
even mean, in general, as an argument to any command that accepts it?Where can I find a documentation that describes the usage of
{}
as arguments?
bash shell
New contributor
Examples
I've recently found examples of using pairs of enclosing braces {}
, with nothing in between the opening and closing braces, as arguments to commands and even to their options:
cat foo | xargs -I{} echo {}
find . -size 0 -exec rm -i {} ;
No Documentation
My problem is that I cannot find a documentation in the GNU Bash Manual that describes the usage of {}
in such context as in the examples above.
I do not think it is a parameter expansion, because a dollar sign must precede the enclosing braces in a parameter expansion as in ${}
.
It cannot be a brace expansion either, because it takes the form of {x..y[..incr]}
, where x
and y
are not optional.
It also cannot be a command grouping either, because {}
is used as arguments.
Questions
What does a pair of enclosing braces
{}
even mean, in general, as an argument to any command that accepts it?Where can I find a documentation that describes the usage of
{}
as arguments?
bash shell
bash shell
New contributor
New contributor
New contributor
asked 3 hours ago
Niko GambtNiko Gambt
261
261
New contributor
New contributor
Some commands have this options{}
- meaningtargets
to act on, withfind
command, it's remove/rm
found files.
– Tuyen Pham
3 hours ago
add a comment |
Some commands have this options{}
- meaningtargets
to act on, withfind
command, it's remove/rm
found files.
– Tuyen Pham
3 hours ago
Some commands have this options
{}
- meaning targets
to act on, with find
command, it's remove/rm
found files.– Tuyen Pham
3 hours ago
Some commands have this options
{}
- meaning targets
to act on, with find
command, it's remove/rm
found files.– Tuyen Pham
3 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
These curly braces are left alone by bash; they belong to find
and xargs
, respectively, and are described in their man-pages.
man find
-exec command ;
Execute command; true if 0 status is returned. All following arguments to find are
taken to be arguments to the command until an argument consisting of `;' is encoun‐
tered. The string `{}' is replaced by the current file name being processed every‐
where it occurs in the arguments to the command, not just in arguments where it is
alone, as in some versions of find. Both of these constructions might need to be
escaped (with a `') or quoted to protect them from expansion by the shell. See
the EXAMPLES section for examples of the use of the -exec option. The specified
command is run once for each matched file. The command is executed in the starting
directory. There are unavoidable security problems surrounding use of the -exec
action; you should use the -execdir option instead.
-exec command {} +
This variant of the -exec action runs the specified command on the selected files,
but the command line is built by appending each selected file name at the end; the
total number of invocations of the command will be much less than the number of
matched files. The command line is built in much the same way that xargs builds
its command lines. Only one instance of `{}' is allowed within the command. The
command is executed in the starting directory. If find encounters an error, this
can sometimes cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may not be run at
all. This variant of -exec always returns true.
-execdir command ;
-execdir command {} +
Like -exec, but the specified command is run from the subdirectory containing the
matched file, which is not normally the directory in which you started find. This
a much more secure method for invoking commands, as it avoids race conditions dur‐
ing resolution of the paths to the matched files. As with the -exec action, the
`+' form of -execdir will build a command line to process more than one matched
file, but any given invocation of command will only list files that exist in the
same subdirectory. If you use this option, you must ensure that your $PATH envi‐
ronment variable does not reference `.'; otherwise, an attacker can run any com‐
mands they like by leaving an appropriately-named file in a directory in which you
will run -execdir. The same applies to having entries in $PATH which are empty or
which are not absolute directory names. If find encounters an error, this can
sometimes cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may not be run at all.
The result of the action depends on whether the + or the ; variant is being used;
-execdir command {} + always returns true, while -execdir command {} ; returns true
only if command returns 0.
man xargs
-I replace-str
Replace occurrences of replace-str in the initial-arguments with names read from
standard input. Also, unquoted blanks do not terminate input items; instead the
separator is the newline character. Implies -x and -L 1.
-i[replace-str], --replace[=replace-str]
This option is a synonym for -Ireplace-str if replace-str is specified. If the re‐
place-str argument is missing, the effect is the same as -I{}. This option is dep‐
recated; use -I instead.
Edit: and here WHY bash ignores those curly braces:
man bash
{ list; }
list is simply executed in the current shell environment. list must be terminated with a new‐
line or semicolon. This is known as a group command. The return status is the exit status of
list. Note that unlike the metacharacters ( and ), { and } are reserved words and must occur
where a reserved word is permitted to be recognized. Since they do not cause a word break,
they must be separated from list by whitespace or another shell metacharacter.
For emphasis: list must be terminated with a newline or semicolon.
1
Thank you! I'm annoyed that whoever wroteman xargs
did not even bother to explain what{}
actually means, nor did the author redirect (no pun intended) the reader to the explanation of-exec
in the man-page offind
.
– Niko Gambt
2 hours ago
@NikoGambt - I sympathise ...
– tink
2 hours ago
1
@NikoGambt Well, {} doesn't really mean anything to xargs, except for being the default value for -i, which is deprecated. I'm not sure what explanation is necessary beyond that. In the example you posted, it might as well have beenxargs -Iab echo ab
; it's a purely arbitrary choice.
– Random832
1 hour ago
add a comment |
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These curly braces are left alone by bash; they belong to find
and xargs
, respectively, and are described in their man-pages.
man find
-exec command ;
Execute command; true if 0 status is returned. All following arguments to find are
taken to be arguments to the command until an argument consisting of `;' is encoun‐
tered. The string `{}' is replaced by the current file name being processed every‐
where it occurs in the arguments to the command, not just in arguments where it is
alone, as in some versions of find. Both of these constructions might need to be
escaped (with a `') or quoted to protect them from expansion by the shell. See
the EXAMPLES section for examples of the use of the -exec option. The specified
command is run once for each matched file. The command is executed in the starting
directory. There are unavoidable security problems surrounding use of the -exec
action; you should use the -execdir option instead.
-exec command {} +
This variant of the -exec action runs the specified command on the selected files,
but the command line is built by appending each selected file name at the end; the
total number of invocations of the command will be much less than the number of
matched files. The command line is built in much the same way that xargs builds
its command lines. Only one instance of `{}' is allowed within the command. The
command is executed in the starting directory. If find encounters an error, this
can sometimes cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may not be run at
all. This variant of -exec always returns true.
-execdir command ;
-execdir command {} +
Like -exec, but the specified command is run from the subdirectory containing the
matched file, which is not normally the directory in which you started find. This
a much more secure method for invoking commands, as it avoids race conditions dur‐
ing resolution of the paths to the matched files. As with the -exec action, the
`+' form of -execdir will build a command line to process more than one matched
file, but any given invocation of command will only list files that exist in the
same subdirectory. If you use this option, you must ensure that your $PATH envi‐
ronment variable does not reference `.'; otherwise, an attacker can run any com‐
mands they like by leaving an appropriately-named file in a directory in which you
will run -execdir. The same applies to having entries in $PATH which are empty or
which are not absolute directory names. If find encounters an error, this can
sometimes cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may not be run at all.
The result of the action depends on whether the + or the ; variant is being used;
-execdir command {} + always returns true, while -execdir command {} ; returns true
only if command returns 0.
man xargs
-I replace-str
Replace occurrences of replace-str in the initial-arguments with names read from
standard input. Also, unquoted blanks do not terminate input items; instead the
separator is the newline character. Implies -x and -L 1.
-i[replace-str], --replace[=replace-str]
This option is a synonym for -Ireplace-str if replace-str is specified. If the re‐
place-str argument is missing, the effect is the same as -I{}. This option is dep‐
recated; use -I instead.
Edit: and here WHY bash ignores those curly braces:
man bash
{ list; }
list is simply executed in the current shell environment. list must be terminated with a new‐
line or semicolon. This is known as a group command. The return status is the exit status of
list. Note that unlike the metacharacters ( and ), { and } are reserved words and must occur
where a reserved word is permitted to be recognized. Since they do not cause a word break,
they must be separated from list by whitespace or another shell metacharacter.
For emphasis: list must be terminated with a newline or semicolon.
1
Thank you! I'm annoyed that whoever wroteman xargs
did not even bother to explain what{}
actually means, nor did the author redirect (no pun intended) the reader to the explanation of-exec
in the man-page offind
.
– Niko Gambt
2 hours ago
@NikoGambt - I sympathise ...
– tink
2 hours ago
1
@NikoGambt Well, {} doesn't really mean anything to xargs, except for being the default value for -i, which is deprecated. I'm not sure what explanation is necessary beyond that. In the example you posted, it might as well have beenxargs -Iab echo ab
; it's a purely arbitrary choice.
– Random832
1 hour ago
add a comment |
These curly braces are left alone by bash; they belong to find
and xargs
, respectively, and are described in their man-pages.
man find
-exec command ;
Execute command; true if 0 status is returned. All following arguments to find are
taken to be arguments to the command until an argument consisting of `;' is encoun‐
tered. The string `{}' is replaced by the current file name being processed every‐
where it occurs in the arguments to the command, not just in arguments where it is
alone, as in some versions of find. Both of these constructions might need to be
escaped (with a `') or quoted to protect them from expansion by the shell. See
the EXAMPLES section for examples of the use of the -exec option. The specified
command is run once for each matched file. The command is executed in the starting
directory. There are unavoidable security problems surrounding use of the -exec
action; you should use the -execdir option instead.
-exec command {} +
This variant of the -exec action runs the specified command on the selected files,
but the command line is built by appending each selected file name at the end; the
total number of invocations of the command will be much less than the number of
matched files. The command line is built in much the same way that xargs builds
its command lines. Only one instance of `{}' is allowed within the command. The
command is executed in the starting directory. If find encounters an error, this
can sometimes cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may not be run at
all. This variant of -exec always returns true.
-execdir command ;
-execdir command {} +
Like -exec, but the specified command is run from the subdirectory containing the
matched file, which is not normally the directory in which you started find. This
a much more secure method for invoking commands, as it avoids race conditions dur‐
ing resolution of the paths to the matched files. As with the -exec action, the
`+' form of -execdir will build a command line to process more than one matched
file, but any given invocation of command will only list files that exist in the
same subdirectory. If you use this option, you must ensure that your $PATH envi‐
ronment variable does not reference `.'; otherwise, an attacker can run any com‐
mands they like by leaving an appropriately-named file in a directory in which you
will run -execdir. The same applies to having entries in $PATH which are empty or
which are not absolute directory names. If find encounters an error, this can
sometimes cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may not be run at all.
The result of the action depends on whether the + or the ; variant is being used;
-execdir command {} + always returns true, while -execdir command {} ; returns true
only if command returns 0.
man xargs
-I replace-str
Replace occurrences of replace-str in the initial-arguments with names read from
standard input. Also, unquoted blanks do not terminate input items; instead the
separator is the newline character. Implies -x and -L 1.
-i[replace-str], --replace[=replace-str]
This option is a synonym for -Ireplace-str if replace-str is specified. If the re‐
place-str argument is missing, the effect is the same as -I{}. This option is dep‐
recated; use -I instead.
Edit: and here WHY bash ignores those curly braces:
man bash
{ list; }
list is simply executed in the current shell environment. list must be terminated with a new‐
line or semicolon. This is known as a group command. The return status is the exit status of
list. Note that unlike the metacharacters ( and ), { and } are reserved words and must occur
where a reserved word is permitted to be recognized. Since they do not cause a word break,
they must be separated from list by whitespace or another shell metacharacter.
For emphasis: list must be terminated with a newline or semicolon.
1
Thank you! I'm annoyed that whoever wroteman xargs
did not even bother to explain what{}
actually means, nor did the author redirect (no pun intended) the reader to the explanation of-exec
in the man-page offind
.
– Niko Gambt
2 hours ago
@NikoGambt - I sympathise ...
– tink
2 hours ago
1
@NikoGambt Well, {} doesn't really mean anything to xargs, except for being the default value for -i, which is deprecated. I'm not sure what explanation is necessary beyond that. In the example you posted, it might as well have beenxargs -Iab echo ab
; it's a purely arbitrary choice.
– Random832
1 hour ago
add a comment |
These curly braces are left alone by bash; they belong to find
and xargs
, respectively, and are described in their man-pages.
man find
-exec command ;
Execute command; true if 0 status is returned. All following arguments to find are
taken to be arguments to the command until an argument consisting of `;' is encoun‐
tered. The string `{}' is replaced by the current file name being processed every‐
where it occurs in the arguments to the command, not just in arguments where it is
alone, as in some versions of find. Both of these constructions might need to be
escaped (with a `') or quoted to protect them from expansion by the shell. See
the EXAMPLES section for examples of the use of the -exec option. The specified
command is run once for each matched file. The command is executed in the starting
directory. There are unavoidable security problems surrounding use of the -exec
action; you should use the -execdir option instead.
-exec command {} +
This variant of the -exec action runs the specified command on the selected files,
but the command line is built by appending each selected file name at the end; the
total number of invocations of the command will be much less than the number of
matched files. The command line is built in much the same way that xargs builds
its command lines. Only one instance of `{}' is allowed within the command. The
command is executed in the starting directory. If find encounters an error, this
can sometimes cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may not be run at
all. This variant of -exec always returns true.
-execdir command ;
-execdir command {} +
Like -exec, but the specified command is run from the subdirectory containing the
matched file, which is not normally the directory in which you started find. This
a much more secure method for invoking commands, as it avoids race conditions dur‐
ing resolution of the paths to the matched files. As with the -exec action, the
`+' form of -execdir will build a command line to process more than one matched
file, but any given invocation of command will only list files that exist in the
same subdirectory. If you use this option, you must ensure that your $PATH envi‐
ronment variable does not reference `.'; otherwise, an attacker can run any com‐
mands they like by leaving an appropriately-named file in a directory in which you
will run -execdir. The same applies to having entries in $PATH which are empty or
which are not absolute directory names. If find encounters an error, this can
sometimes cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may not be run at all.
The result of the action depends on whether the + or the ; variant is being used;
-execdir command {} + always returns true, while -execdir command {} ; returns true
only if command returns 0.
man xargs
-I replace-str
Replace occurrences of replace-str in the initial-arguments with names read from
standard input. Also, unquoted blanks do not terminate input items; instead the
separator is the newline character. Implies -x and -L 1.
-i[replace-str], --replace[=replace-str]
This option is a synonym for -Ireplace-str if replace-str is specified. If the re‐
place-str argument is missing, the effect is the same as -I{}. This option is dep‐
recated; use -I instead.
Edit: and here WHY bash ignores those curly braces:
man bash
{ list; }
list is simply executed in the current shell environment. list must be terminated with a new‐
line or semicolon. This is known as a group command. The return status is the exit status of
list. Note that unlike the metacharacters ( and ), { and } are reserved words and must occur
where a reserved word is permitted to be recognized. Since they do not cause a word break,
they must be separated from list by whitespace or another shell metacharacter.
For emphasis: list must be terminated with a newline or semicolon.
These curly braces are left alone by bash; they belong to find
and xargs
, respectively, and are described in their man-pages.
man find
-exec command ;
Execute command; true if 0 status is returned. All following arguments to find are
taken to be arguments to the command until an argument consisting of `;' is encoun‐
tered. The string `{}' is replaced by the current file name being processed every‐
where it occurs in the arguments to the command, not just in arguments where it is
alone, as in some versions of find. Both of these constructions might need to be
escaped (with a `') or quoted to protect them from expansion by the shell. See
the EXAMPLES section for examples of the use of the -exec option. The specified
command is run once for each matched file. The command is executed in the starting
directory. There are unavoidable security problems surrounding use of the -exec
action; you should use the -execdir option instead.
-exec command {} +
This variant of the -exec action runs the specified command on the selected files,
but the command line is built by appending each selected file name at the end; the
total number of invocations of the command will be much less than the number of
matched files. The command line is built in much the same way that xargs builds
its command lines. Only one instance of `{}' is allowed within the command. The
command is executed in the starting directory. If find encounters an error, this
can sometimes cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may not be run at
all. This variant of -exec always returns true.
-execdir command ;
-execdir command {} +
Like -exec, but the specified command is run from the subdirectory containing the
matched file, which is not normally the directory in which you started find. This
a much more secure method for invoking commands, as it avoids race conditions dur‐
ing resolution of the paths to the matched files. As with the -exec action, the
`+' form of -execdir will build a command line to process more than one matched
file, but any given invocation of command will only list files that exist in the
same subdirectory. If you use this option, you must ensure that your $PATH envi‐
ronment variable does not reference `.'; otherwise, an attacker can run any com‐
mands they like by leaving an appropriately-named file in a directory in which you
will run -execdir. The same applies to having entries in $PATH which are empty or
which are not absolute directory names. If find encounters an error, this can
sometimes cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may not be run at all.
The result of the action depends on whether the + or the ; variant is being used;
-execdir command {} + always returns true, while -execdir command {} ; returns true
only if command returns 0.
man xargs
-I replace-str
Replace occurrences of replace-str in the initial-arguments with names read from
standard input. Also, unquoted blanks do not terminate input items; instead the
separator is the newline character. Implies -x and -L 1.
-i[replace-str], --replace[=replace-str]
This option is a synonym for -Ireplace-str if replace-str is specified. If the re‐
place-str argument is missing, the effect is the same as -I{}. This option is dep‐
recated; use -I instead.
Edit: and here WHY bash ignores those curly braces:
man bash
{ list; }
list is simply executed in the current shell environment. list must be terminated with a new‐
line or semicolon. This is known as a group command. The return status is the exit status of
list. Note that unlike the metacharacters ( and ), { and } are reserved words and must occur
where a reserved word is permitted to be recognized. Since they do not cause a word break,
they must be separated from list by whitespace or another shell metacharacter.
For emphasis: list must be terminated with a newline or semicolon.
edited 1 hour ago
answered 3 hours ago
tinktink
4,24211219
4,24211219
1
Thank you! I'm annoyed that whoever wroteman xargs
did not even bother to explain what{}
actually means, nor did the author redirect (no pun intended) the reader to the explanation of-exec
in the man-page offind
.
– Niko Gambt
2 hours ago
@NikoGambt - I sympathise ...
– tink
2 hours ago
1
@NikoGambt Well, {} doesn't really mean anything to xargs, except for being the default value for -i, which is deprecated. I'm not sure what explanation is necessary beyond that. In the example you posted, it might as well have beenxargs -Iab echo ab
; it's a purely arbitrary choice.
– Random832
1 hour ago
add a comment |
1
Thank you! I'm annoyed that whoever wroteman xargs
did not even bother to explain what{}
actually means, nor did the author redirect (no pun intended) the reader to the explanation of-exec
in the man-page offind
.
– Niko Gambt
2 hours ago
@NikoGambt - I sympathise ...
– tink
2 hours ago
1
@NikoGambt Well, {} doesn't really mean anything to xargs, except for being the default value for -i, which is deprecated. I'm not sure what explanation is necessary beyond that. In the example you posted, it might as well have beenxargs -Iab echo ab
; it's a purely arbitrary choice.
– Random832
1 hour ago
1
1
Thank you! I'm annoyed that whoever wrote
man xargs
did not even bother to explain what {}
actually means, nor did the author redirect (no pun intended) the reader to the explanation of -exec
in the man-page of find
.– Niko Gambt
2 hours ago
Thank you! I'm annoyed that whoever wrote
man xargs
did not even bother to explain what {}
actually means, nor did the author redirect (no pun intended) the reader to the explanation of -exec
in the man-page of find
.– Niko Gambt
2 hours ago
@NikoGambt - I sympathise ...
– tink
2 hours ago
@NikoGambt - I sympathise ...
– tink
2 hours ago
1
1
@NikoGambt Well, {} doesn't really mean anything to xargs, except for being the default value for -i, which is deprecated. I'm not sure what explanation is necessary beyond that. In the example you posted, it might as well have been
xargs -Iab echo ab
; it's a purely arbitrary choice.– Random832
1 hour ago
@NikoGambt Well, {} doesn't really mean anything to xargs, except for being the default value for -i, which is deprecated. I'm not sure what explanation is necessary beyond that. In the example you posted, it might as well have been
xargs -Iab echo ab
; it's a purely arbitrary choice.– Random832
1 hour ago
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Niko Gambt is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Niko Gambt is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Niko Gambt is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Niko Gambt is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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Some commands have this options
{}
- meaningtargets
to act on, withfind
command, it's remove/rm
found files.– Tuyen Pham
3 hours ago