athena-jot(1) [debian man page]

JOT(1)							      General Commands Manual							    JOT(1)

NAME

       jot - print sequential or random data

SYNOPSIS

       jot [ options ] [ reps [ begin [ end [ s ] ] ] ]

DESCRIPTION

       Jot  is	used to print out increasing, decreasing, random, or redundant data, usually numbers, one per line.  The options are understood as
       follows.

       -r     Generate random data instead of sequential data, the default.

       -b word
	      Just print word repetitively.

       -w word
	      Print word with the generated data appended to it.  Octal, hexadecimal, exponential, ASCII, zero padded, and  right-adjusted  repre-
	      sentations are possible by using the appropriate printf(3) conversion specification inside word, in which case the data are inserted
	      rather than appended.

       -c     This is an abbreviation for -w %c.

       -s string
	      Print data separated by string.  Normally, newlines separate data.

       -n     Do not print the final newline normally appended to the output.

       -p precision
	      Print only as many digits or characters of the data as indicated by the integer precision.  In the absence of -p, the  precision	is
	      the greater of the precisions of begin and end.  The -p option is overridden by whatever appears in a printf(3) conversion following
	      -w.

       The last four arguments indicate, respectively, the number of data, the lower bound, the upper bound, and the  step  size  or,  for  random
       data,  the seed.  While at least one of them must appear, any of the other three may be omitted, and will be considered as such if given as
       -.  Any three of these arguments determines the fourth.	If four are specified and the given and computed  values  of  reps  conflict,  the
       lower  value  is  used.	 If  fewer  than three are specified, defaults are assigned left to right, except for s, which assumes its default
       unless both begin and end are given.

       Defaults for the four arguments are, respectively, 100, 1, 100, and 1, except that when random data are requested, s  defaults  to  a  seed
       depending  upon	the time of day.  Reps is expected to be an unsigned integer, and if given as zero is taken to be infinite.  Begin and end
       may be given as real numbers or as characters representing the corresponding value in ASCII.  The last argument must be a real number.

       Random numbers are obtained through random(3).  The name jot derives in part from iota, a function in APL.

EXAMPLES

       The command

	      jot   21	 -1   1.00

       prints 21 evenly spaced numbers increasing from -1 to 1.  The ASCII character set is generated with

	      jot   -c	 128   0

       and the strings xaa through xaz with

	      jot   -w	 xa%c	26   a

       while 20 random 8-letter strings are produced with

	      jot   -r	 -c   160   a	z   |	rs   -g   0   8

       Infinitely many yes's may be obtained through

	      jot   -b	 yes   0

       and thirty ed(1) substitution commands applying to lines 2, 7, 12, etc. is the result of

	      jot   -w	 %ds/old/new/	30   2	 -   5

       The stuttering sequence 9, 9, 8, 8, 7, etc. can be produced by suitable choice of precision and step size, as in

	      jot   0	9   -	-.5

       and a file containing exactly 1024 bytes is created with

	      jot   -b	 x   512   >   block

       Finally, to set tabs four spaces apart starting from column 10 and ending in column 132, use

	      expand   -`jot   -s,   -	 10   132   4`

       and to print all lines 80 characters or longer,

	      grep   `jot   -s	 ""   -b   .   80`

SEE ALSO

       ed(1), expand(1), rs(1), yes(1), printf(3), random(3), expand(1)

4th Berkeley Distribution					   June 6, 1993 							    JOT(1)