Pipe to export command

Question

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?

To answer the followup question ("how can I get `xargs` to work with functions?"): http://stackoverflow.com/q/11003418/1004889 — pje, May 27 '14 at 18:01
Note the following will work `export "$(cmd1 | cmd2 | cmd3)"` — Peter Berg, Sep 19 '19 at 20:47

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 14 '12 at 23:51

7

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

answered Dec 14 '12 at 23:51

hd1

1 Answers1