[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