APPLY(1) APPLY(1)
NAME
apply, pick - repeatedly apply a command; select arguments
SYNOPSIS
apply [ -ac ] [ -n ] command arg ...
pick [ arg ... ]
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.
Pick writes each argument to the standard error and reads a
reply. If the reply is `y', the argument is echoed to the
standard output; if the reply is `q', pick exits without
reading any more arguments; there is no output for any other
response. If there are no arguments, lines of the standard
input are taken instead.
EXAMPLES
apply echo *
Time-consuming way to do `ls'.
apply -2 cmp a1 b1 a2 b2
Compare the `a' files to the `b' files.
wc -l `pick *.[ch]`
Interactively select `.c' and `.h' files and count the
lines in each.
apply "wc -l %1" `pick *.[ch]`
Same, but use a separate process to count each file.
SEE ALSO
sh(1)
BUGS
There is no way to pass a literal `%2' if `%' is apply's
argument expansion character.