.\"	$NetBSD: apply.1,v 1.7 1998/04/28 04:07:08 fair Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1990, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"     @(#)apply.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/4/94
.\"
.Dd April 4, 1994
.Dt APPLY 1
.Os BSD 4.2
.Sh NAME
.Nm apply
.Nd apply a command to a set of arguments
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl a Ns Ar c
.Op Fl Ns Ar #
.Ar command argument ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
runs the named
.Ar command
on each
argument
.Ar argument
in turn.
.Pp
Character sequences of the form
.Dq Li \&%d
in
.Ar command ,
where
.Dq Li 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 "-ac"
.It Fl Ns Ar #
Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number
.Fl #
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 command, the
.Fl #
option is ignored.
.It Fl a Ns Ar c
The use of the character
.Dq Li %
as a magic character may be changed with the
.Fl a
option.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variable affects the execution of
.Nm
:
.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 EXAMPLES
.Bl -tag -width apply -compact
.It Li "apply echo a*"
is similar to
.Xr ls 1 ;
.It Li "apply \-2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3"
compares the `a' files to the `b' files;
.It Li "apply \-0 who 1 2 3 4 5"
runs
.Xr who 1
5 times; and
.It Li "apply \'ln %1 /usr/joe\'" *
links all files in the current directory to the directory
.Pa /usr/joe .
.El
.Sh Files
.Bl -tag -width /bin/sh -compact
.It Pa /bin/sh
Default shell
.El
.Sh AUTHOR
Rob Pike
.Sh BUGS
Shell metacharacters in
.Ar command
may have bizarre effects; it is best to enclose complicated
commands in single quotes
.Pq '' .
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in 
.Bx 4.2 .