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NAME

jot — print sequential or random data

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

jot is used to print out increasing, decreasing, random, or redundant data, usually numbers, one per line.

The options are as follows:

-b word

Just print word repetitively. Overrides earlier -b, -c, and -w.

-c

This is an abbreviation for -w %c. Overrides earlier -b and -w.

-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 numbers begin and end. The -p option is overridden by whatever appears in a printf(3) conversion following -w.

-r

Generate random data. By default, jot generates 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-adjusted representations are possible by using the appropriate printf(3) conversion specification inside word, in which case the data is inserted rather than appended. Overrides earlier -b, -c, and -w.

The last four arguments specify the length of the output sequence, its start and end points, and the step size. Any three of these arguments determine the fourth. If the given and computed values for reps conflict, the lower value is used.

Arguments can be omitted by specifying a ‘-’. The default values for reps, begin, end, and step are 100, 1, 100, and 1, respectively. Omitted values are computed if possible or assume the default. A special case arises if only begin and end are specified: if begin is greater than end then step is set to −1, otherwise it is set to 1; afterwards reps is computed.

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 arc4random(3). Historical versions of jot used step to seed the random number generator. This is no longer supported. The name jot derives in part from “iota”, a function in APL.

$ jot 6 1 10 0.5
1
2
2
2
3
4

$ jot -p 1 6 1 10 0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5

$ jot -p 0 6 .9999999999 10 0.5
1
1
2
2
3
3

$ jot -w %d 6 1 10 0.5

EXAMPLES

Print 21 evenly spaced numbers increasing from -1 to 1:

Generate the ASCII character set:

Generate the strings xaa through xaz:

Generate 20 random 8-letter strings:

Infinitely many yes(1)'s may be obtained through:

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

Create a file containing exactly 1024 bytes:

To set tabs four spaces apart starting from column 10 and ending in column 132, use:

To print all lines 80 characters or longer:

SEE ALSO

ed(1), expand(1), rs(1), yes(1), arc4random(3), printf(3)

HISTORY

The jot utility first appeared in 4.2BSD.

AUTHORS

John A. Kunze