[linux] Read line by line in bash script

xargs is the most flexible solution for splitting output into command arguments.

It is also very human readable and easy to use due to its simple parameterisation.

Format is xargs -n $NUMLINES mycommand.

For example, to echo each individual line in a file /tmp/tmp.txt you'd do:

cat /tmp/tmp.txt | xargs -n 1 echo

Or to diff each successive pair of files listed as lines in a file of the above name you'd do:

cat /tmp/tmp.txt | xargs -n 2 diff

The -n 2 instructs xargs to consume and pass as separate arguments two lines of what you've piped into it at a time.

You can tailor xargs to split on delimiters besides carriage return/newline.

Use man xargs and google to find out more about the power of this versatile utility.