title: When should xargs be preferred over while-read loops?
body: <p><code>xargs</code> is widely used in shell scripting; it is usually easy to recast these uses in bash using <code>while read -r; do ... done</code> or <code>while read -ar; do ... done</code> loops.</p>
  
  <p>When should <code>xargs</code> be preferred, and when should while-read loops be preferred?</p>