Bug#1121061: libreoffice: undocumented limit of 249 arguments

tag 1121061 + moreinfo

thanks


Hi,

Am 20.11.25 um 13:20 schrieb Francesco Potortì:
> Package: libreoffice
> Version: 4:25.8.2-3
> Severity: normal
>
> When libreoffice is called from the command line for batch processing with --convert-to it apparently forces a limit on the number of arguments without telling.
>
> In my case, when giving the names of 371 files on the command line, it starts working and printing two lines for each processed file until 249 files are processed, then it hangs.
>
> If I give it 249 file arguments, it works without problems.  The command line is:
>
> /usr/lib/libreoffice/program/oosplash --convert-to csv:Text - txt - csv (StarCalc):44,,,,,,,,,,,3 --outdir ./tmp.GYzB1YV6z1 [ 42-char file names]

http://google.com/search?q=libreoffice+argument+limit+convert-to:

"

There is no specific argument limit for the libreoffice --convert-to command itself, but shell limitations on the number of arguments can cause issues when converting a very large number of files at once. To overcome this, process files in batches by creating scripts that convert groups of files, or use a tool like xargs to handle the conversion and avoid exceeding the shell's argument list limits, explains Stack Overflow. 
Batch processing: Write a script to convert files in smaller, manageable batches to stay under the shell's argument limit.
xargs: Use the xargs command, which is designed to build and execute command lines from standard input, to avoid hitting the argument count limit.
xargs example: find . -name "*.docx" -print0 | xargs -0 libreoffice --convert-to pdf

"

(AI, but..)


Sounds like your case exactly?


And if it's the shell limit,  there's nothing LO can do. Neither should it.

Regadrs,


Rene