Most programs use -v
to enable verbose mode. Why does the GNU xargs
use -t
to enable verbosity?
Why xargs Uses -t to Enable Verbose Mode
gnuoptionsxargs
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Best Answer
And the shell uses
-x
(this is short for "execution trace").For
xargs
, the-t
option enables "trace mode", i.e. it will show you what it's doing by printing the commands that it is executing. Tracing is just another ways of "being verbose". Note that tracing the execution of commands is a particular way of being verbose, as verbosity in other commands (such as GNUmv
) doesn't really show the commands being executed but just tells you that it's doing something.You will also notice that the GNU
xargs
utility has a--verbose
option, which is a synonym for-t
.