apply(1) BSD General Commands Manual apply(1)
NAME
apply -- apply a command to a set of arguments
SYNOPSIS
apply [-a c] [-d] [-#] command argument ...
DESCRIPTION
The apply utility 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 -# spec-
ifies 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.
-a c The use of the character `%' as a magic character may be changed
with the -a option.
-d Display the commands that would have been executed, but do not
actually execute them.
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
AUTHORS
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.
BSD April 4, 1994 BSD
Mac OS X 10.6 - Generated Thu Sep 17 20:07:09 CDT 2009