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.Dd January 28, 2022
.Dt APPLY 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm apply
.Nd apply a command to a set of arguments
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl a Ar c
.Op Fl d
.Op Cm - Ns Ar #
.Ar command argument ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility runs the named
.Ar command
on each
argument
.Ar argument
in turn.
.Pp
Character sequences of the form
.Dq Li \&%d
in
.Ar command ,
where
.Sq Li d
is a digit from 1 to 9, are replaced by the
.Li d Ns \'th
following unused
.Ar argument .
In this case, the largest digit number of arguments are discarded for
each execution of
.Ar command .
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Cm - Ns Ar #
Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number
.Ar #
specifies the number of arguments to be passed to
.Ar command .
If the number is zero,
.Ar command
is run, without arguments, once for each
.Ar argument .
.Pp
If any sequences of
.Dq Li \&%d
occur in
.Ar command ,
the
.Fl #
option is ignored.
.It Fl a Ar c
The use of the character
.Sq Li %
as a magic character may be changed with the
.Fl a
option.
.It Fl d
Display the commands that would have been executed, but do not actually
execute them.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variable affects the execution of
.Nm :
.Bl -tag -width SHELL
.It Ev SHELL
Pathname of shell to use.
If this variable is not defined, the Bourne shell is used.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /bin/sh -compact
.It Pa /bin/sh
default shell
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
.Bl -tag -width apply -compact
.It Li "apply echo *"
is similar to
.Xr ls 1 ;
.It Li "apply \-2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3"
compares the `a' files to the `b' files;
.It Li "apply \-0 who 1 2 3 4 5"
runs
.Xr 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 HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.2 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An Rob Pike
.Sh BUGS
Shell metacharacters in
.Ar command
may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated
commands in single quotes
.Pq '' .
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility does not recognize multibyte characters.