NAME
apply
- apply a command to a set of arguments
SYNOPSIS
apply
[-ac]
[-#]
command argument ...
DESCRIPTION
apply
runs the named
command
on each
argument
argument
in turn.
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
argument.
In this case, the largest digit number of arguments are discarded for
each execution of
command.
The options are as follows:
- -#
-
Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number
-#
specifies the number of arguments to be passed to
command.
If the number is zero,
command
is run, without arguments, once for each
argument.
If any sequences of
``
%d
''
occur in command, the
-#
option is ignored.
- -ac
-
The use of the character
``
%
''
as a magic character may be changed with the
-a
option.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variable affects the execution of
:
SHELL
-
Pathname of shell to use.
If this variable is not defined, the Bourne shell is used.
FILES
/bin/sh
-
Default shell
EXAMPLES
apply echo *
-
is similar to
ls(1);
apply -2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3
-
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
.
HISTORY
The
apply
command appeared in
4.2BSD.
AUTHORS
Rob Pike
BUGS
Shell metacharacters in
command
may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated
commands in single quotes
('').