No such file or directory error when using xargs

Question

I have some files with .mkv extension and I want to calculate their total size using du -h. Some of the files are preceded by whitespace characters.

ranveer@ranveer:~$ ls *.mkv
Arrow.S01E02.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION_(1)  [SHYAMPAREEK.IN].mkv
mymediafirefreefreak.com_The.Mentalist.S05E04.480p.HDTV.X264-mRS.mkv
SHYAMPAREEK.IN-The.Vampire.Diaries.S04E02.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION_(1).mkv
Supernatural.S08E03.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION_(1)SHYAMPAREEK.IN].mkv
  [WWW.SHYAMPAREEK.IN].Arrow S01E01 480p HDTV.mkv
 [WWW.SHYAMPAREEK.IN].Castle.2009.S05E03.480p.HDTV.x264-mSD.mkv
ranveer@ranveer:~$ 

Now, I am using xargs to apply du -h to each of the files but for the files which are preceded by whitespace characters I am getting No such file or directory error.

ranveer@ranveer:~$ ls *.mkv | xargs -I f du -h "f" | awk '{print $1}'
du: cannot access `[WWW.SHYAMPAREEK.IN].Arrow S01E01 480p HDTV.mkv': No such file or directory
du: cannot access `[WWW.SHYAMPAREEK.IN].Castle.2009.S05E03.480p.HDTV.x264-mSD.mkv': No such file or directory
186M
151M
185M
186M
ranveer@ranveer:~$ 

But when I apply du -h to those files individually it works fine.

ranveer@ranveer:~$ du -h "  [WWW.SHYAMPAREEK.IN].Arrow S01E01 480p HDTV.mkv"
151M      [WWW.SHYAMPAREEK.IN].Arrow S01E01 480p HDTV.mkv
ranveer@ranveer:~$ 

So, why am I getting error when using the combination of xargs & du -h.

Answer 1

You don't really need xargs in this case: du -h -- *.mkv | awk '{print $1}'

Anyway, to fix your problem ls *.mkv | xargs du -h | awk '{print $1}'

Works for me, bash4.2

Answer 2

Your command is a bit Rube Goldberg-esque. Take the list of files *.mkv. List those files (potentially replacing some nonprintable characters by an approximate representation). Parse the list (with some parsing rules that don't quite match the way the list is generated). Pass the individual parsed elements to the du command (which would be capable of taking multiple arguments).

The ls command doesn't expand wildcards, it's the shell that does. Do not parse the output of ls, it's practically never needed and often breaks something.

The input format of the xargs command doesn't match what any other command produces. Yes, it's bizarre. With -I, xargs ignores indentation, which is why the file names with initial spaces are mangled. Do not use xargs except with the -0 option or when you know your input doesn't contain characters that would confuse it.

Just write

du -h *.mkv | awk '{print $1}'

Answer 3

Using xargs can be confusing sometimes. If you want to use it reliably, you either should make its input be \0-separated, i. e.

ls | tr \\n \\0 | xargs -0 stat

in order to change the newlines to \0s, or do (if you have a recent xargs)

ls | xargs -d \\n stat

Answer 4

Try adding \ before your ls, e.g.: \ls | xargs file.