JOT(1) MachTen Programmer’s 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 representations are pos-
sible 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) 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 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 con-
flict, 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 pro-
duced 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 col-
umn 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)

MachTen June 6, 1993 2