Argument list too long error

Asked Nov 21 '16 at 20:32

Active Nov 21 '16 at 20:32

Viewed 677 times

I have a command that only contains 4 arguments, one of which has a value of ~150,000 characters. When I run the command, I receive an error stating Argument list too long.

I searched for a solution to similar problems, and someone recommended xargs. I don't think this is is applicable to my problem, as I'm trying to pass a single argument that is 150k+ characters.

Here's a shortened version of what I'm trying to run:

appname -arg foo -arg2 bar -arg {150k characters}

I'm running Ubuntu 16.04.

asked Nov 21 '16 at 20:32

user1661677

Is there a way to pass the data via a filename instead of via the actual data? – Chai T. Rex Nov 21 '16 at 20:35
You mean something like this? appname -arg foo -arg2 bar -arg file.txt – user1661677 Nov 21 '16 at 20:37
Yes. If there is, there's a nice way to do it without an actual file. – Chai T. Rex Nov 21 '16 at 20:37
How does this circumvent my original problem of having too many characters in my command? – user1661677 Nov 21 '16 at 20:39
If the program allows you to pass all those characters in via a file, the program will get the characters it needs. – Chai T. Rex Nov 21 '16 at 20:40
3

You could be up against a hard limit. http://askubuntu.com/questions/14081/what-is-the-maximum-length-of-command-line-arguments-in-gnome-terminal – Nov 21 '16 at 20:44

Argument list too long error

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