jot(1)
NAME
jot - print sequential or random data
SYNOPSIS
jot [-cnr] [-b word] [-w word] [-s string] [-p precision]
[reps [begin [end [s]]]]
DESCRIPTION
- The jot utility is used to print out increasing, decreasing,
- random, or
redundant data, usually numbers, one per line. - The following options are available:
- -r Generate random data instead of the default sequen
- tial data.
- -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
representations are possible by using the appropri - ate 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) con - version following -w.
- The last four arguments indicate, respectively, the number
- of data, the
lower bound, the upper bound, and the step size or, for ran - dom 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 speci - fied 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, the seed, s, is - picked randomly. The reps argument is expected to be an unsigned in
- teger, and if
given as zero is taken to be infinite. The begin and end - arguments 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.
EXIT STATUS 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 step size, as in - jot - 9 0 -.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`
DIAGNOSTICS
- The following diagnostic messages deserve special explana
- tion:
- illegal or unsupported format '%s' The requested conversion
- format specifier for printf(3) was not of the form
- %[#][ ][{+,-}][0-9]*[.[0-9]*]?
- where ``?'' must be one of
- [l]{d,i,o,u,x}
- or
- {c,e,f,g,D,E,G,O,U,X}
- range error in conversion A value to be printed fell out
- side the range
of the data type associated with the requested output for - mat.
- too many conversions More than one conversion format speci
- fier has been
supplied, but only one is allowed.