[node -e] evaluates a line of node.js source from a command line argument:

    $ node -e "console.log('Hello, world.')"
     Hello, world.

[xargs] allows you to pipe the output of one command as an argument to another command. By default it will show up at the tail end of the second command's arg list, but if you want to interleave it you can use -I flag:

    $ echo /usr/share/dict/words | xargs head -5

     A
     A's
     AOL
     AOL's

    $ echo petard | xargs -I {} grep {} /usr/share/dict/words
     petard
     petard's
     petards

[xargs node -e] therefore allows text from STDIN to inserted into a script to be evaluated by the node interpreter, accessible via process.argv:

    $ echo is dog this yes | xargs node -e "console.log(process.argv.slice(1).sort().reverse().join(' ').toUpperCase())"
     YES THIS IS DOG

No, he is trying to demonstrate how to use 'xargs node -e'.

Are you even reading this discussion properly or are you just searching for some shell snippets and ridicule them as soon as you get a chance? This is what it looks like from your history: https://qht.co/threads?id=uselessuseof

ionwake doesn't want to learn how to search a word. He wants to know how 'xargs node -e' works. Please read this again: https://qht.co/item?id=4075293