xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/apply/apply.1 (revision 6e8394b8baa7d5d9153ab90de6824bcd19b3b4e1)
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32.\"     @(#)apply.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/4/94
33.\"
34.Dd April 4, 1994
35.Dt APPLY 1
36.Os BSD 4.2
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm apply
39.Nd apply a command to a set of arguments
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm apply
42.Op Fl a Ns Ar c
43.Op Fl Ns Ar #
44.Ar command argument
45.Op Ar ...
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47.Nm apply
48runs the named
49.Ar command
50on each
51argument
52.Ar argument
53in turn.
54.Pp
55Character sequences of the form
56.Dq Li \&%d
57in
58.Ar command ,
59where
60.Sq Li d
61is a digit from 1 to 9, are replaced by the
62.Li d Ns \'th
63following unused
64.Ar argument .
65In this case, the largest digit number of arguments are discarded for
66each execution of
67.Ar command .
68.Pp
69The options are as follows:
70.Bl -tag -width "-ac"
71.It Fl Ns Ar #
72Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number
73.Fl #
74specifies the number of arguments to be passed to
75.Ar command .
76If the number is zero,
77.Ar command
78is run, without arguments, once for each
79.Ar argument .
80.Pp
81If any sequences of
82.Dq Li \&%d
83occur in
84.Ar command ,
85the
86.Fl #
87option is ignored.
88.It Fl a Ns Ar c
89The use of the character
90.Sq Li %
91as a magic character may be changed with the
92.Fl a
93option.
94.El
95.Sh ENVIRONMENT
96The following environment variable affects the execution of
97.Nm apply :
98.Bl -tag -width SHELL
99.It Ev SHELL
100Pathname of shell to use.
101If this variable is not defined, the Bourne shell is used.
102.El
103.Sh EXAMPLES
104.Bl -tag -width apply -compact
105.It Li "apply echo a*"
106is similar to
107.Xr ls 1 ;
108.It Li "apply \-2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3"
109compares the `a' files to the `b' files;
110.It Li "apply \-0 who 1 2 3 4 5"
111runs
112.Xr who 1
1135 times; and
114.It Li "apply \'ln %1 /usr/joe\'" *
115links all files in the current directory to the directory
116.Pa /usr/joe .
117.El
118.Sh FILES
119.Bl -tag -width /bin/sh -compact
120.It Pa /bin/sh
121default shell
122.El
123.Sh AUTHORS
124.An Rob Pike
125.Sh BUGS
126Shell metacharacters in
127.Ar command
128may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated
129commands in single quotes
130.Pq '' .
131.Sh HISTORY
132The
133.Nm
134command appeared in
135.Bx 4.2 .
136