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     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 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 a time-consuming way to do `ls -1'

          apply -2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2 ...
               compares the `a' files to the `b' files

          apply -0 date `seq 20`
               runs date 20 times; like `for i in `seq 20`; do date;
               done'

     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 argu-
          ment expansion character.