xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/apply/apply.1 (revision 4cf49a43559ed9fdad601bdcccd2c55963008675)
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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 BSD 4.2
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm apply
40.Nd apply a command to a set of arguments
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm apply
43.Op Fl a Ns Ar c
44.Op Fl Ns Ar #
45.Ar command argument
46.Op Ar ...
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Nm apply
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 "-ac"
72.It Fl Ns Ar #
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 Ns Ar c
90The use of the character
91.Sq Li %
92as a magic character may be changed with the
93.Fl a
94option.
95.El
96.Sh ENVIRONMENT
97The following environment variable affects the execution of
98.Nm apply :
99.Bl -tag -width SHELL
100.It Ev SHELL
101Pathname of shell to use.
102If this variable is not defined, the Bourne shell is used.
103.El
104.Sh EXAMPLES
105.Bl -tag -width apply -compact
106.It Li "apply echo a*"
107is similar to
108.Xr ls 1 ;
109.It Li "apply \-2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3"
110compares the `a' files to the `b' files;
111.It Li "apply \-0 who 1 2 3 4 5"
112runs
113.Xr who 1
1145 times; and
115.It Li "apply \'ln %1 /usr/joe\'" *
116links all files in the current directory to the directory
117.Pa /usr/joe .
118.El
119.Sh FILES
120.Bl -tag -width /bin/sh -compact
121.It Pa /bin/sh
122default shell
123.El
124.Sh AUTHORS
125.An Rob Pike
126.Sh BUGS
127Shell metacharacters in
128.Ar command
129may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated
130commands in single quotes
131.Pq '' .
132.Sh HISTORY
133The
134.Nm
135command appeared in
136.Bx 4.2 .
137