APPLY(1)                                                              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 dth
     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

          apply 'ln %1 /usr/joe' *
     links all files in the current directory to the directory /usr/joe

SEE ALSO
     sh(1).

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.

















                                                                        Page 1