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APPLY(1)		     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 execution of
     command.

     The options are as follows:

     -#      Normally arguments are taken singly; the optional number  #  speci-
	     fies  the number of arguments to be passed to command.  If the num-
	     ber 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 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 ac-
	     tually 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
	    POSIX shell is used.

FILES
     /bin/sh  default shell

EXAMPLES
     apply echo *
	    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.

HISTORY
     The apply command appeared in 4.2BSD.

AUTHORS
     Rob Pike

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

     The apply utility does not recognize multibyte characters.

FreeBSD ports 15.1		January 28, 2022			APPLY(1)

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