1.\" Copyright (c) 1994 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.\" @(#)random.6 8.2 (Berkeley) 3/31/94 29.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\" 31.Dd February 8, 2003 32.Dt RANDOM 6 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm random 36.Nd random lines from a file or random numbers 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Nm 39.Op Fl elrUuw 40.Op Fl f Ar filename 41.Op Ar denominator 42.Sh DESCRIPTION 43.Nm Random 44has two distinct modes of operations. 45The default is to read in lines 46from the standard input and randomly write them out 47to the standard output with a probability of 481 / 49.Ar denominator . 50The default 51.Ar denominator 52for this mode of operation is 2, giving each line a 50/50 chance of 53being displayed. 54.Pp 55The second mode of operation is to read in a file from 56.Ar filename 57and randomize the contents of the file and send it back out to 58standard output. 59The contents can be randomized based off of newlines or based off of 60space characters as determined by 61.Xr isspace 3 . 62The default 63.Ar denominator 64for this mode of operation is 1, which gives each line a chance to be 65displayed, but in a 66.Xr random 3 67order. 68.Pp 69The options are as follows: 70.Bl -tag -width Ds 71.It Fl e 72If the 73.Fl e 74option is specified, 75.Nm 76does not read or write anything, and simply exits with a random 77exit value of 0 to 78.Ar denominator 79\&- 1, inclusive. 80.It Fl f Ar filename 81The 82.Fl f 83option is used to specify the 84.Ar filename 85to read from. 86Standard input is used if 87.Ar filename 88is set to 89.Sq Fl . 90.It Fl l 91Randomize the input via newlines (the default). 92.It Fl r 93The 94.Fl r 95option guarantees that the output is unbuffered. 96.It Fl U 97Tells 98.Xr random 6 99that it is okay for it to reuse any given line or word when creating a 100randomized output. 101.It Fl u 102Tells 103.Xr random 6 104not to select the same line or word from a file more than once (the 105default). 106This does not guarantee uniqueness if there are two of the 107same tokens from the input, but it does prevent selecting the same 108token more than once. 109.It Fl w 110Randomize words separated by 111.Xr isspace 3 112instead of newlines. 113.El 114.Sh SEE ALSO 115.Xr random 3 , 116.Xr fortune 6 117.Sh HISTORY 118The 119functionality to randomizing lines and words was added in 2003 by 120.An Sean Chittenden Aq Mt seanc@FreeBSD.org . 121.Sh BUGS 122No index is used when printing out tokens from the list which 123makes it rather slow for large files (10MB+). 124For smaller 125files, however, it should still be quite fast and efficient. 126