How to pass command with parameters to xargs

Question

echo ls -l -a / | xargs sh -c

How to make above command work?

it only list current directory

seems only ls is passed to xargs

echo '"ls -l -a /"' | xargs sh -c would work though, but the input I got has no ""

Answer 1

The -c flag to sh only accepts one argument while xargs is splitting the arguments on whitespace - that's why the double quoting works (one level to make it a single word for the shell, one for xargs).

If you use the -0 or null argument to xargs your particular case will work:

echo ls -l -a / | xargs -0 sh -c