The C shell has a built-in command that lets you execute a command repeatedly:
%repeat
n command
All you do is specify the number of repetitions, followed by the command you want to re-execute. A trivial example would be:
%repeat 4 echo Enter name:
Enter name: Enter name: Enter name: Enter name:
Simple, right? Just imagine what Jack Nicholson could have done in the movie The Shining if he had traded in his typewriter for a UNIX system:
%repeat 500 echo "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."
Ok, this is fun at first, but you may soon wonder whether this command has any down-to-earth uses. It does, and I'll conclude with some more useful examples:
Print three copies of memo :
%repeat 3 pr memo | lp
Run popd ( 14.6 ) four times to clear a directory stack:
%repeat 4 popd
Append 50 boilerplate files to report :
%repeat 50 cat template >> report
Some versions of the C shell repeat command have a quoting bug. See the end of article 47.2 .
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