cp/mv/etc : argument list too long ... I am sick of this

[user]

On Mon, 5 Dec 2005, David Kelly wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 05:56:22PM -0500, user wrote:
> [...]
> > - since I live in 2005, what can I do to my FreeBSD system to upgrade
> > it to handle the directories I have ?  How do I fix this so I can do
> > normal, simple command lines instead of butchered ridiculous hacks
> > like above ?
> 
> Upgrade the user. Start with the man page to xargs(1) as you are far
> from the first to have this problem.
> 
> Is well and good that there be some limit to how much data one can pack
> on the command line and incoming arglist in an application's
> environment else fumble fingers could cause major havoc. IIRC its
> currently 10k bytes.


Yes, in addition to for loops, I also know how to use xargs.  I can use
find.  I can do all sorts of trickery.

What I want to know is, how can I just use cp ?  You are suggesting above
that the limitation is part of the users environment, and that I should
upgrade the user.  I dn't know what you mean by that.  I am root.  How do
I upgrade the user(s environment ?)

thanks.