xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/apply/apply.1 (revision fcb560670601b2a4d87bb31d7531c8dcc37ee71b)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1990, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
13.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
14.\"    without specific prior written permission.
15.\"
16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
26.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
27.\"
28.\"     @(#)apply.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/4/94
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd December 13, 2006
32.Dt APPLY 1
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm apply
36.Nd apply a command to a set of arguments
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Nm
39.Op Fl a Ar c
40.Op Fl d
41.Op Fl #
42.Ar command argument ...
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm
46utility runs the named
47.Ar command
48on each
49argument
50.Ar argument
51in turn.
52.Pp
53Character sequences of the form
54.Dq Li \&%d
55in
56.Ar command ,
57where
58.Sq Li d
59is a digit from 1 to 9, are replaced by the
60.Li d Ns \'th
61following unused
62.Ar argument .
63In this case, the largest digit number of arguments are discarded for
64each execution of
65.Ar command .
66.Pp
67The options are as follows:
68.Bl -tag -width indent
69.It Fl #
70Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number
71.Fl #
72specifies the number of arguments to be passed to
73.Ar command .
74If the number is zero,
75.Ar command
76is run, without arguments, once for each
77.Ar argument .
78.Pp
79If any sequences of
80.Dq Li \&%d
81occur in
82.Ar command ,
83the
84.Fl #
85option is ignored.
86.It Fl a Ar c
87The use of the character
88.Sq Li %
89as a magic character may be changed with the
90.Fl a
91option.
92.It Fl d
93Display the commands that would have been executed, but do not actually
94execute them.
95.El
96.Sh ENVIRONMENT
97The following environment variable affects the execution of
98.Nm :
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 FILES
105.Bl -tag -width /bin/sh -compact
106.It Pa /bin/sh
107default shell
108.El
109.Sh EXAMPLES
110.Bl -tag -width apply -compact
111.It Li "apply echo *"
112is similar to
113.Xr ls 1 ;
114.It Li "apply \-2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3"
115compares the `a' files to the `b' files;
116.It Li "apply \-0 who 1 2 3 4 5"
117runs
118.Xr who 1
1195 times; and
120.It Li "apply \'ln %1 /usr/joe\'" *
121links all files in the current directory to the directory
122.Pa /usr/joe .
123.El
124.Sh HISTORY
125The
126.Nm
127command appeared in
128.Bx 4.2 .
129.Sh AUTHORS
130.An Rob Pike
131.Sh BUGS
132Shell metacharacters in
133.Ar command
134may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated
135commands in single quotes
136.Pq '' .
137.Pp
138The
139.Nm
140utility does not recognize multibyte characters.
141