.\"	$OpenBSD: apply.1,v 1.21 2005/05/15 16:22:12 jaredy Exp $
.\"	$NetBSD: apply.1,v 1.4 1996/03/18 23:16:57 jtc Exp $
.\"
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.\"     @(#)apply.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/4/94
.\"
.Dd April 4, 1994
.Dt APPLY 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm apply
.Nd apply a command to a set of arguments
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm apply
.Op Fl Ar #
.Op Fl d
.Op Fl a Ar magic
.Ar command argument ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
runs the named
.Ar command
on each given
.Ar argument
in turn.
.Pp
Character sequences of the form
.Dq Li \&%d
in
.Ar command ,
where
.Sq d
is a digit from 1 to 9, are replaced by the
.Li d Ns 'th
following unused
.Ar argument .
In this case, the largest digit number of arguments are discarded for
each execution of
.Ar command .
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl Ns Ar #
Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number
.Fl Ns Ar #
specifies the number of arguments to be passed to
.Ar command .
If the number is zero,
.Ar command
is run, without arguments, once for each
.Ar argument .
.Pp
If any sequences of
.Dq Li \&%d
occur in
.Ar command ,
the
.Fl Ns Ar #
option is ignored.
.It Fl a Ar magic
Use
.Ar magic
as the magic character instead of the default
.Ql % .
.It Fl d
Debug mode.
Print commands to the standard output but do not actually execute them.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width SHELL
.It Ev SHELL
Pathname of shell to use.
If this variable is not defined, the Bourne shell is used.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /bin/sh -compact
.It Pa /bin/sh
default shell
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
Operate similar to
.Xr ls 1 :
.Pp
.Dl "$ apply echo a*"
.Pp
Compare the
.Pa a*
files to the
.Pa b*
files:
.Pp
.Dl "$ apply -2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3"
.Pp
Run
.Xr who 1
five times:
.Pp
.Dl "$ apply -0 who 1 2 3 4 5"
.Pp
Link all files in the current directory to the directory
.Pa /home/joe :
.Pp
.Dl "$ apply 'ln %1 /home/joe'" *
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr sh 1 ,
.Xr xargs 1
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.2 .
.Sh AUTHORS
Rob Pike
.Sh BUGS
Shell metacharacters in
.Ar command
may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated
commands in single quotes
.Pq '' .