GNU bug report logs - #7036
ls, mv, etc on LINUX

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From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Elisabet Wahlgren <elisabet.wahlgren <at> ericsson.com>
Cc: 7036 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#7036: ls, mv, etc on LINUX
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2010 10:50:38 -0600

On 09/15/2010 09:02 AM, Elisabet Wahlgren wrote:
>
> Hi Guys,
>
> Greatly surprised (and not very happy) that my attempts to list or move files satisfying a file name pattern (like ls *.tgz for example)  fail miserably on my linux machine, when the number of files satisfying the pattern is large. Error message example: "/bin/mv: Argument list too long". Is this a bug or a feature, would you know?

Feature of your OS, and a FAQ:
http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/#Argument-list-too-long

>
> I used to work with a Unix version (Solaris) quite a number of years (decades) and cannot remember having seen this limitation before.

Solaris has the same problem - it's just that you never presented it 
with enough data to reach the limit.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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