xref: /netbsd-src/usr.bin/seq/seq.1 (revision 9bc9835ae05e2469068f8b120bd6e30133cadf50)

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.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
.\" by Brian Ginsbach.
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.Dd December 17, 2018
.Dt SEQ 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm seq
.Nd print sequences of numbers
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl w
.Op Fl f Ar format
.Op Fl s Ar string
.Op Fl t Ar string
.Op Ar first Op Ar incr
.Ar last
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility prints a sequence of numbers, one per line by default,
from
.Ar first
.Pq default 1
to as near
.Ar last
as possible, in increments of
.Ar incr
.Pq default 1 .
When
.Ar first
is larger than
.Ar last ,
the default
.Ar incr
is -1.
.Pp
All numbers are interpreted as floating point.
.Pp
Normally integer values are printed as decimal integers.
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility accepts the following options:
.Bl -tag -width Ar
.It Fl f Ar format
Use a
.Xr printf 3
style
.Ar format
to print each number.
Only the
.Cm A ,
.Cm a ,
.Cm E ,
.Cm e ,
.Cm F ,
.Cm f ,
.Cm G ,
.Cm g ,
and
.Cm %
conversion characters are valid, along with any optional
flags and an optional numeric minimum field width or precision.
The
.Ar format
can contain character escape sequences in backslash notation as
defined in
.St -ansiC .
The default is
.Cm %g .
.It Fl s Ar string
Use
.Ar string
to separate numbers.
The
.Ar string
can contain character escape sequences in backslash notation as
defined in
.St -ansiC .
The default is
.Cm \en .
.It Fl t Ar string
Use
.Ar string
to terminate sequence of numbers.
The
.Ar string
can contain character escape sequences in backslash notation as
defined in
.St -ansiC .
The default is
.Cm \en .
.It Fl w
Equalize the widths of all numbers by padding with zeros as necessary.
This option has no effect with the
.Fl f
option.
If any sequence numbers will be printed in exponential notation,
the default conversion is changed to
.Cm %e .
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std
.Sh EXAMPLES
Generate a sequence from 1 to 3 (inclusive) with a default increment of 1:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
$ seq 1 3
1
2
3
.Ed
.Pp
Generate a sequence from 3 to 1 (inclusive) with a default increment of -1:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
$ seq 3 1
3
2
1
.Ed
.Pp
Generate a sequence from 0 to 0.1 (inclusive) with an increment of 0.05
and padding with leading zeroes:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
$ seq -w 0 .05 .1
0.00
0.05
0.10
.Ed
.Pp
Generate a sequence from 1 to 3 (inclusive) with a default increment of 1,
and a custom separator string:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
$ seq -s "," 1 3
1,2,3
.Ed
.Pp
Generate a sequence from 1 to 2 (inclusive) with an increment of 0.2 and
print the results with two digits after the decimal point (using a
.Xr printf 3
style format):
.Bd -literal -offset indent
$ seq -f %.2f 1 0.2 2
1.00
1.20
1.40
1.60
1.80
2.00
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr jot 1 ,
.Xr printf 1 ,
.Xr printf 3
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command first appeared in Version\~8
.At .
A
.Nm
command appeared in
.Nx 3.0 .
This command was based on the command of the same name in
.Tn "Plan 9 from Bell Labs"
and the
.Tn GNU
core utilities.
The
.Tn GNU
.Nm
command first appeared in the 1.13 shell utilities release.
.Sh BUGS
The
.Fl w
option does not handle the transition from pure floating point
to exponent representation very well.
The
.Nm
command is not bug for bug compatible with other implementations.