The purpose of the xargs command is to read standard input (STDIN) and build up command lines to execute. The xargs command can be used to pass arguments to another command that does not accept input from a pipe. For example, rm | xargs echo will echo the arguments passed to the rm command. The xargs command can also limit the number of arguments per command line, insert arguments at different positions, and handle special characters in the input. References: LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Weight: 25, Objective 103.3: Perform basic file management, xargs command