APPLY(1) General Commands Manual APPLY(1)
NAME
apply - apply a command to a set of arguments
SYNOPSIS
apply [ -ac ] [ -n ] command args ...
DESCRIPTION
Apply runs the named command on each argument arg in turn. Normally arguments are chosen singly; the optional number n specifies the num-
ber of arguments to be passed to command. If n is zero, command is run without arguments once for each arg. Character sequences of the
form %d in command, where d is a digit from 1 to 9, are replaced by the d'th following unused arg. If any such sequences occur, n is
ignored, and the number of arguments passed to command is the maximum value of d in command. The character `%' may be changed by the -a
option.
Examples:
apply echo *
is similar to ls(1);
apply -2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 ...
compares the `a' files to the `b' files;
apply -0 who 1 2 3 4 5
runs who(1) 5 times; and
apply 'ln %1 /usr/joe' *
links all files in the current directory to the directory /usr/joe.
SEE ALSO
sh(1)
AUTHOR
Rob Pike
BUGS
Shell metacharacters in command may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated commands in single quotes ' '.
There is no way to pass a literal `%2' if `%' is the argument expansion character.
4.2 Berkeley Distribution April 29, 1985 APPLY(1)
