xref: /dragonfly/usr.bin/apply/apply.1 (revision 49781055)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1990, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
13.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
14.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
15.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\"     @(#)apply.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/4/94
33.\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/apply/apply.1,v 1.8.2.4 2002/07/15 04:07:25 keramida Exp $
34.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.bin/apply/apply.1,v 1.3 2006/02/17 19:38:54 swildner Exp $
35.\"
36.Dd April 4, 1994
37.Dt APPLY 1
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm apply
41.Nd apply a command to a set of arguments
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm
44.Op Fl a Ar c
45.Op Fl d
46.Op Fl #
47.Ar command argument ...
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Nm
51utility runs the named
52.Ar command
53on each
54argument
55.Ar argument
56in turn.
57.Pp
58Character sequences of the form
59.Dq Li \&%d
60in
61.Ar command ,
62where
63.Sq Li d
64is a digit from 1 to 9, are replaced by the
65.Li d Ns \'th
66following unused
67.Ar argument .
68In this case, the largest digit number of arguments are discarded for
69each execution of
70.Ar command .
71.Pp
72The options are as follows:
73.Bl -tag -width indent
74.It Fl #
75Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number
76.Fl #
77specifies the number of arguments to be passed to
78.Ar command .
79If the number is zero,
80.Ar command
81is run, without arguments, once for each
82.Ar argument .
83.Pp
84If any sequences of
85.Dq Li \&%d
86occur in
87.Ar command ,
88the
89.Fl #
90option is ignored.
91.It Fl a Ar c
92The use of the character
93.Sq Li %
94as a magic character may be changed with the
95.Fl a
96option.
97.It Fl d
98Display the commands that would have been executed, but do not actually
99execute them.
100.El
101.Sh ENVIRONMENT
102The following environment variable affects the execution of
103.Nm :
104.Bl -tag -width SHELL
105.It Ev SHELL
106Pathname of shell to use.
107If this variable is not defined, the Bourne shell is used.
108.El
109.Sh FILES
110.Bl -tag -width /bin/sh -compact
111.It Pa /bin/sh
112default shell
113.El
114.Sh EXAMPLES
115.Bl -tag -width apply -compact
116.It Li "apply echo a*"
117is similar to
118.Xr ls 1 ;
119.It Li "apply \-2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3"
120compares the `a' files to the `b' files;
121.It Li "apply \-0 who 1 2 3 4 5"
122runs
123.Xr who 1
1245 times; and
125.It Li "apply \'ln %1 /usr/joe\'" *
126links all files in the current directory to the directory
127.Pa /usr/joe .
128.El
129.Sh HISTORY
130The
131.Nm
132command appeared in
133.Bx 4.2 .
134.Sh AUTHORS
135.An Rob Pike
136.Sh BUGS
137Shell metacharacters in
138.Ar command
139may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated
140commands in single quotes
141.Pq '' .
142