APPLY(1)                   OpenBSD Reference Manual                   APPLY(1)

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 execu-
     tion of command.

     The options are as follows:

     -#   Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number -# speci-
          fies 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 ig-
          nored.

     -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 apply:

     SHELL  Pathname of shell to use.  If this variable is not defined, the
            Bourne shell is used.

EXAMPLES
     apply echo a*
            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.

FILES
     /bin/sh  default shell

AUTHOR
     Rob Pike

BUGS
     Shell metacharacters in command may have bizarre effects; it is best to
     enclose complicated commands in single quotes ('').

HISTORY
     The apply command appeared in 4.2BSD.

OpenBSD 2.6                      April 4, 1994                               1