On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 17:57:45 +1100 Damien Elmes <clug at repose.cx> wrote: > > seq 5 21 | sed 's/^/argus.log./' | xargs cp --target-directory=/tmp You forgot the .gz. --target-directory is cute. Perhaps better seq 5 21 | xargs cp argus.log.{}.gz /tmp This does invoke multiple cp commands. So perhaps cp `seq -f 'argus.log.%g.gz' 5 21` /tmp -- Martin