APPLY(1)                             BSD                              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 in turn. Normally you
     choose arguments singly.

OPTIONS
     -n        Specifies the number 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.

     -ac       Change the % character to the value of c.

EXAMPLES
     The command line

          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) five times; and the command

          apply 'ln %1 /usr/joe' *

     links all files in the current directory to the directory /usr/joe.

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

     You cannot pass a literal "%2" if "%" is the argument expansion
     character.

SEE ALSO
     sh(1)