[bug #62043] The xargs -r, --no-run-if-empty Option Is Ignored When a Delimiter Is Passed

Follow-up Comment #7, bug #62043 (project findutils):

[comment #5 comment #5:] by Jay
> [comment #4 comment #4:] Andreas writes:
>> OTOH I am trying to fix the documentation of xargs'
>> inconsistent behavior, imho these two commands should produce
>> identical output both for consistency reasons and according to
>> the documentation but do not:
>> printf '\n' | xargs -r echo foo
>> printf '\0' | xargs -0 echo foo
> 
> These are not supposed to behave similarly.  In its default
> mode (without -d or -0), xargs does whitespace and quote
> processing.
[...] 
> You're right though; if the documentation does not make this
> clear, we should fix the documentation.

I think I get it now. The major _relevant_ difference (apart from quoting)
between -0/-d and default is:
0 default: args are separated by whitespace character*s* (plus
leading/trailing whitespace is ignored)
0 -0/-d: args are separated by each single instance of NUL or -d's arg.
From which follows that it is impossible to pass empty arguments in default
mode (without quoting). - Multiple adjacent whitespace characters (including
\n) are collapsed so one ends up with the equivalent of totally empty input.

cu Andreas

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