xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/apply/apply.1 (revision 17d6c636720d00f77e5d098daf4c278f89d84f7b)
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32.\"     @(#)apply.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/4/94
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd April 4, 1994
36.Dt APPLY 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm apply
40.Nd apply a command to a set of arguments
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl a Ar c
44.Op Fl d
45.Op Fl #
46.Ar command argument ...
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Nm
49runs the named
50.Ar command
51on each
52argument
53.Ar argument
54in turn.
55.Pp
56Character sequences of the form
57.Dq Li \&%d
58in
59.Ar command ,
60where
61.Sq Li d
62is a digit from 1 to 9, are replaced by the
63.Li d Ns \'th
64following unused
65.Ar argument .
66In this case, the largest digit number of arguments are discarded for
67each execution of
68.Ar command .
69.Pp
70The options are as follows:
71.Bl -tag -width indent
72.It Fl #
73Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number
74.Fl #
75specifies the number of arguments to be passed to
76.Ar command .
77If the number is zero,
78.Ar command
79is run, without arguments, once for each
80.Ar argument .
81.Pp
82If any sequences of
83.Dq Li \&%d
84occur in
85.Ar command ,
86the
87.Fl #
88option is ignored.
89.It Fl a Ar c
90The use of the character
91.Sq Li %
92as a magic character may be changed with the
93.Fl a
94option.
95.It Fl d
96Display the commands that would have been executed, but do not actually
97execute them.
98.El
99.Sh ENVIRONMENT
100The following environment variable affects the execution of
101.Nm :
102.Bl -tag -width SHELL
103.It Ev SHELL
104Pathname of shell to use.
105If this variable is not defined, the Bourne shell is used.
106.El
107.Sh EXAMPLES
108.Bl -tag -width apply -compact
109.It Li "apply echo a*"
110is similar to
111.Xr ls 1 ;
112.It Li "apply \-2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3"
113compares the `a' files to the `b' files;
114.It Li "apply \-0 who 1 2 3 4 5"
115runs
116.Xr who 1
1175 times; and
118.It Li "apply \'ln %1 /usr/joe\'" *
119links all files in the current directory to the directory
120.Pa /usr/joe .
121.El
122.Sh FILES
123.Bl -tag -width /bin/sh -compact
124.It Pa /bin/sh
125default shell
126.El
127.Sh AUTHORS
128.An Rob Pike
129.Sh BUGS
130Shell metacharacters in
131.Ar command
132may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated
133commands in single quotes
134.Pq '' .
135.Sh HISTORY
136The
137.Nm
138command appeared in
139.Bx 4.2 .
140