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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 sequential data.

     -b word
	     Just print word repetitively.

     -w word
	     Print word with the generated data appended to it.  Octal, hexa-
	     decimal, exponential, ASCII, zero padded, and right-adjusted rep-
	     resentations are possible by using the appropriate printf(3) con-
	     version 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 follow-
	     ing -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, the seed, s, is picked ran-
     domly.  The reps argument is expected to be an unsigned integer, 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.

     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 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 jot utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.  The fol-
     lowing diagnostic messages deserve special explanation:

     illegal or unsupported format '%s'  The requested conversion format spec-
     ifier 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 outside the range
     of the data type associated with the requested output format.

     too many conversions  More than one conversion format specifier has been
     supplied, but only one is allowed.

SEE ALSO

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

FreeBSD 5.4			 June 6, 1993			   FreeBSD 5.4

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