For instance, if I'd like to reference the output of the previous command once, I can use the command below:
ls *.txt | xargs -I % ls -l %
But how to reference the output twice? Like how can I implement something like:
ls *.txt | xargs -I % 'some command' % > %
PS: I know how to do it in shell script, but I just want a simpler way to do it.
You can pass this argument to bash -c:
ls *.txt | xargs -I % bash -c 'ls -l "$1" > "out.$1"' - %
You can lookup up 'tpipe' on SO; it will also lead you to 'pee' (which is not a good search term elsewhere on the internet). Basically, they're variants of the tee command which write to multiple processes instead of writing to files like the tee command does.
However, with Bash, you can use Process Substitution:
ls *.txt | tee >(cmd1) >(cmd2)
This will write the input to tee to each of the commands cmd1 and cmd2.
You can arrange to lose standard output in at least two different ways:
ls *.txt | tee >(cmd1) >(cmd2) >/dev/null
ls *.txt | tee >(cmd1) | cmd2
