JOT(1) BSD Reference Manual JOT(1)NAMEjot - print sequential or random data
SYNOPSISjot [-b word] [-cnr] [-p prec] [-s string] [-w word] [rep [begin [end
[s]]]]
DESCRIPTION
The jot program is used to print out increasing, decreasing, random, or
redundant data, usually numbers, one per line. The following options are
available:
-b word Just print word repetitively.
-c This is an abbreviation for ``-w %c''.
-n Suppress the final newline normally appended to the output.
-p prec Print only as many digits or characters of the data as indi-
cated by the integer prec. In the absence of -p, the preci-
sion 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.
-r Generate random data instead of the default sequential data.
-s string Print data separated by string. Normally, newlines separate
data.
-w word Print word with the generated data appended to it. Octal,
hexadecimal, exponential, ASCII, zero padded, and right-ad-
justed representations are possible by using the appropriate
printf(3) conversion specification inside word, in which case
the data are inserted rather than appended.
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, ex-
cept for s, which assumes its default unless both begin and end are giv-
en.
Defaults for the four arguments are, respectively, 100, 1, 100, and 1,
except that when random data are requested, s defaults to a seed depend-
ing 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 char-
acter 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 ALSOed(1), expand(1), rs(1), yes(1), printf(3), random(3)HISTORY
The jot command appeared in 4.4BSD.
BSDI BSD/OS June 6, 1993 2
