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bashshellterminalpipelinexargs

Pipe to export command

Why does export fail when used as the last step in a command pipeline? 

echo FOO=bar | xargs export
# => xargs: export: No such file or directory

I can rewrite it this way to accomplish what I want:

export `echo FOO=bar`

But why can't I use export in the first way?

Solution

  • export is a shell builtin and xargs expects an actual binary.