Argument list too long — how to fix

bash: /usr/bin/rm: Argument list too long
-bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long
OSError: [Errno 7] Argument list too long

Quick fix: Don't pass the glob to the command; let find do it: find . -maxdepth 1 -name '*.log' -delete or find . -maxdepth 1 -name '*.jpg' -exec mv -t /dest {} +. For other commands pipe through xargs: printf '%s\0' *.log | xargs -0 rm.

What it means

The shell expands *.log into one argument per file before running rm. When the total size of the arguments plus environment variables exceeds the kernel limit, execve() fails with E2BIG, shown as "Argument list too long". The command never runs.

Check the limit (bytes):

getconf ARG_MAX          # typically 2097152 (2 MiB) on Linux

There's also a per-argument limit of 128 KiB (MAX_ARG_STRLEN), which matters for one huge argument (e.g. a giant -e string or environment variable).

Shell builtins like echo and printf aren't affected because no execve happens — that's why the tricks below work.

Fix 1: find (best for delete/move/copy)

# delete
find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.log' -delete

# move (GNU mv supports -t target-directory)
find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.jpg' -exec mv -t /dest/ {} +

# copy
find src/ -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.csv' -exec cp -t backup/ {} +

-exec ... {} + packs as many filenames per invocation as fit under the limit, so it's fast. Drop -maxdepth 1 to include subdirectories. Run without -delete first to preview what matches.

Fix 2: xargs with null separators

printf '%s\0' *.log | xargs -0 rm --

printf is a builtin, so the expansion is fine; xargs splits the list into chunks below ARG_MAX. -0 makes filenames with spaces and newlines safe. Add -P 4 to run in parallel for slow commands.

With find:

find . -name '*.tmp' -print0 | xargs -0 rm -f --

Fix 3: a loop (simple, slower)

for f in *.log; do rm -- "$f"; done

One process per file; fine for thousands, slow for millions.

Fix 4: operate on the directory

If you want to empty a directory completely, removing and recreating it avoids expanding anything:

rm -rf /var/app/cache && mkdir /var/app/cache

(Preserve ownership/permissions if needed.) rsync -a --delete empty/ target/ is another fast way to empty a huge directory.

ls and wc

ls | wc -l                          # count files without a glob
find . -maxdepth 1 -name '*.log' | wc -l

tar, grep, and others

find . -name '*.json' -print0 | tar --null -czf data.tgz -T -
grep -r "needle" --include='*.log' .       # let grep recurse instead of grep needle *.log

In scripts and programs

Python's subprocess.run(["rm"] + files) fails the same way (OSError: [Errno 7]). Batch the list, or call os.remove() in a loop instead of spawning a process. In Makefiles and build tools, extremely long command lines (many object files) can hit it too; use response files (@args.txt) where the tool supports them.

Raising the limit

On Linux, ARG_MAX is a quarter of the stack size limit, so ulimit -s unlimited or a larger ulimit -s raises it for that shell. It's rarely the right fix; find and xargs scale to any number of files.

Last updated 2026-11-04.