APPLY(1)                   OpenBSD Reference Manual                   APPLY(1)

NAME
     apply - apply a command to a set of arguments

SYNOPSIS
     apply [-#] [-d] [-a magic] command argument ...

DESCRIPTION
     apply runs the named command on each given 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 ig-
             nored.

     -a magic
             Use magic as the magic character instead of the default `%'.

     -d      Debug mode.  Print commands to the standard output but do not ac-
             tually execute them.

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

FILES
     /bin/sh  default shell

EXAMPLES
     Operate similar to ls(1):

           $ apply echo *

     Compare the a* files to the b* files:

           $ apply -2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 a3 b3

     Run who(1) five times:

           $ apply -0 who 1 2 3 4 5

     Link all files in the current directory to the directory /home/joe:

           $ apply 'ln %1 /home/joe' *

SEE ALSO
     sh(1), xargs(1)

HISTORY
     The apply command appeared in 4.2BSD.

AUTHORS
     Rob Pike

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

OpenBSD 4.7                      May 31, 2007                                2
