1.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1990, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)apply.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 04/04/94 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt APPLY 1 10.Os BSD 4.2 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm apply 13.Nd apply a command to a set of arguments 14.Sh SYNOPSIS 15.Nm apply 16.Op Fl a Ns Ar c 17.Op Fl Ns Ar # 18.Ar command argument ... 19.Sh DESCRIPTION 20.Nm Apply 21runs the named 22.Ar command 23on each 24argument 25.Ar argument 26in turn. 27.Pp 28Character sequences of the form 29.Dq Li \&%d 30in 31.Ar command , 32where 33.Dq Li d 34is a digit from 1 to 9, are replaced by the 35.Li d Ns \'th 36following unused 37.Ar argument . 38In this case, the largest digit number of arguments are discarded for 39each execution of 40.Ar command . 41.Pp 42The options are as follows: 43.Bl -tag -width "-ac" 44.It Fl Ns Ar # 45Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number 46.Fl # 47specifies the number of arguments to be passed to 48.Ar command . 49If the number is zero, 50.Ar command 51is run, without arguments, once for each 52.Ar argument . 53.Pp 54If any sequences of 55.Dq Li \&%d 56occur in command, the 57.Fl n 58option is ignored. 59.It Fl a Ns Ar c 60The use of the character 61.Dq Li % 62as a magic character may be changed with the 63.Fl a 64option. 65.El 66.Sh ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 67The following environment variable affects the execution of 68.Nm apply : 69.Bl -tag -width SHELL 70.It Ev SHELL 71Pathname of shell to use. 72If this variable is not defined, the Bourne shell is used. 73.El 74.Sh EXAMPLES 75.Bl -tag -width apply -compact 76.It Li "apply echo a*" 77is similar to ls(1); 78.It Li "apply \-2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3" 79compares the `a' files to the `b' files; 80.It Li "apply \-0 who 1 2 3 4 5" 81runs who(1) 5 times; and 82.It Li "apply \'ln %1 /usr/joe\'" * 83links all files in the current directory to the directory 84.Pa /usr/joe . 85.El 86.Sh Files 87.Bl -tag -width /bin/sh -compact 88.It Pa /bin/sh 89Default shell 90.El 91.Sh AUTHOR 92Rob Pike 93.Sh BUGS 94Shell metacharacters in 95.Ar command 96may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated 97commands in single quotes 98.Pq Sq . 99.Sh HISTORY 100The 101.Nm 102command appeared in 103.Bx 4.2 . 104