.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
.\"
.\"     @(#)apply.1	6.4 (Berkeley) 03/14/91
.\"
.Dd 
.Dt APPLY 1
.Os BSD 4.2
.Sh NAME
.Nm apply
.Nd apply a command to a set of arguments
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm apply
.Op Fl a Ns Ar c
.Op Fl Ns Ar n
.Ar command args ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm Apply
runs the named
.Ar command
on each
argument
.Ar arg
in turn.
.Pp
Options available are:
.Bl -tag -width "-ac"
.It Fl Ns Ar n
Normally arguments are chosen singly; the optional number
.Fl n
specifies the number of arguments to be passed to
.Ar command .
If
.Fl n
is zero,
.Ar command
is run without arguments once for each
.Ar arg .
Character sequences of the form
.Pf \&% Ar d
in
.Ar command ,
where
.Ar d
is a digit from 1 to 9,
are replaced by the
.Ar d Ns \'th
following unused
.Ar arg .
If any such sequences occur,
.Fl n
is ignored,
and the number of arguments passed to
.Ar command
is the maximum value of
.Ar d
in
.Ar command .
.It Fl a Ns Ar c
The character
.Ql %
may be changed by the
.Fl a
option.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variable is used by
.Nm apply :
.Bl -tag -width SHELL
.It Ev SHELL
Pathname of shell to use. If this option is not defined,
a default shell is used.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
.Bl -tag -width apply -compact
.It Li "apply echo a*"
is similar to ls(1);
.It Li "apply \-2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 ..."
compares the `a' files to the `b' files;
.It Li "apply \-0 who 1 2 3 4 5"
runs who(1) 5 times; and
.It Li "apply \'ln %1 /usr/joe\'" *
links all files in the current directory to the directory
.Pa /usr/joe .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr sh 1
.Sh AUTHOR
Rob Pike
.Sh BUGS
Shell metacharacters in
.Ar command
may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated
commands in single quotes
.Pq Sq .
.Pp
There is no way to pass a literal
.Ql %2
if
.Ql %
is the
argument expansion character.
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in 
.Bx 4.2 .