APPLY(1)

NAME
apply - apply a command to a set of arguments

SYNOPSIS
apply [ -ac ] [ -n ] command args ...

DESCRIPTION
Apply runs the named command on each argument arg in turn. Normally arguments are chosen singly; the optional number n specifies the number of arguments to be passed to command. If n is zero, command is run without arguments once for each arg. 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 arg. If any such sequences occur, n is ignored, and the number of arguments passed to command is the maximum value of d in command. The character `%' may be changed by the -a option.

Examples:
    apply echo *
is similar to ls(1);
    apply -2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 ...
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.

SEE ALSO
sh(1)

AUTHOR
Rob Pike

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

There is no way to pass a literal `%2' if `%' is the argument expansion character.