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. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
13.\" must display the following acknowledgment:
14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\" without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\" @(#)random.6 8.2 (Berkeley) 3/31/94
33.\" $FreeBSD: head/games/random/random.6 110723 2003-02-11 19:32:18Z seanc $
34.\"
35.Dd February 8, 2003
36.Dt RANDOM 6
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm random
40.Nd random lines from a file or random numbers
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl er
44.Op Fl f Ar filename
45.Op Ar denominator
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47.Nm Random
48has two distinct modes of operations. The default is to read in lines
49from stdin and randomly write them out to stdout with a probability of
501 /
51.Ar denominator .
52The default
53.Ar denominator
54for this mode of operation is 2, giving each line a 50/50 chance of
55being displayed.
56.Pp
57The second mode of operation is to read in a file from
58.Ar filename
59and randomize the contents of the file and send it back out to stdout.
60The contents can be randomized based off of newlines or based off of
61space characters as determined by
62.Xr isspace 3 .
63The default
64.Ar denominator
65for this mode of operation is 1, which gives each line a chance to be
66displayed, but in a
67.Xr random 3
68order.
69.Pp
70The options are as follows:
71.Bl -tag -width Ds
72.It Fl e
73If the
74.Fl e
75option is specified,
76.Nm
77does not read or write anything, and simply exits with a random
78exit value of 0 to
79.Ar denominator
80\&- 1, inclusive.
81.It Fl f Ar filename
82The
83.Fl f
84option is used to specify the
85.Ar filename
86to read from. stdin is used if the filename is set to "-".
87.It Fl l
88Randomize the input via newlines (the default).
89.It Fl r
90The
91.Fl r
92option guarantees that the output is unbuffered.
93.It Fl u
94Tells
95.Xr random 6
96not to select the same line or word from a file more than once (the
97default). This does not guarantee uniqueness if there are two of the
98same tokens from the input, but it does prevent selecting the same
99token more than once.
100.It Fl U
101Tells
102.Xr random 6
103that it is okay for it to reuse any given line or word when creating a
104randomized output.
105.It Fl w
106Randomize words separated by
107.Xr isspace 3
108instead of newlines.
109.El
110.Sh SEE ALSO
111.Xr fortune 6 ,
112.Xr random 3
113.Sh BUGS
114There is no index used when printing out tokens from the list which
115makes rather slow for large files (10MB+). If this were used in
116performance sensitive areas, I'd do something about it. For smaller
117files, however, it should still be quite fast and efficient.
118.Sh HISTORY
119Original
120.Xr random 6
121game was brought in from BSD 4.4 Lite by jkh in 1994. The
122functionality to randomizing lines and words was added in 2003 by
123seanc.
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. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
13.\" must display the following acknowledgment:
14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\" without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\" @(#)random.6 8.2 (Berkeley) 3/31/94
33.\" $FreeBSD: head/games/random/random.6 110723 2003-02-11 19:32:18Z seanc $
34.\"
35.Dd February 8, 2003
36.Dt RANDOM 6
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm random
40.Nd random lines from a file or random numbers
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl er
44.Op Fl f Ar filename
45.Op Ar denominator
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47.Nm Random
48has two distinct modes of operations. The default is to read in lines
49from stdin and randomly write them out to stdout with a probability of
501 /
51.Ar denominator .
52The default
53.Ar denominator
54for this mode of operation is 2, giving each line a 50/50 chance of
55being displayed.
56.Pp
57The second mode of operation is to read in a file from
58.Ar filename
59and randomize the contents of the file and send it back out to stdout.
60The contents can be randomized based off of newlines or based off of
61space characters as determined by
62.Xr isspace 3 .
63The default
64.Ar denominator
65for this mode of operation is 1, which gives each line a chance to be
66displayed, but in a
67.Xr random 3
68order.
69.Pp
70The options are as follows:
71.Bl -tag -width Ds
72.It Fl e
73If the
74.Fl e
75option is specified,
76.Nm
77does not read or write anything, and simply exits with a random
78exit value of 0 to
79.Ar denominator
80\&- 1, inclusive.
81.It Fl f Ar filename
82The
83.Fl f
84option is used to specify the
85.Ar filename
86to read from. stdin is used if the filename is set to "-".
87.It Fl l
88Randomize the input via newlines (the default).
89.It Fl r
90The
91.Fl r
92option guarantees that the output is unbuffered.
93.It Fl u
94Tells
95.Xr random 6
96not to select the same line or word from a file more than once (the
97default). This does not guarantee uniqueness if there are two of the
98same tokens from the input, but it does prevent selecting the same
99token more than once.
100.It Fl U
101Tells
102.Xr random 6
103that it is okay for it to reuse any given line or word when creating a
104randomized output.
105.It Fl w
106Randomize words separated by
107.Xr isspace 3
108instead of newlines.
109.El
110.Sh SEE ALSO
111.Xr fortune 6 ,
112.Xr random 3
113.Sh BUGS
114There is no index used when printing out tokens from the list which
115makes rather slow for large files (10MB+). If this were used in
116performance sensitive areas, I'd do something about it. For smaller
117files, however, it should still be quite fast and efficient.
118.Sh HISTORY
119Original
120.Xr random 6
121game was brought in from BSD 4.4 Lite by jkh in 1994. The
122functionality to randomizing lines and words was added in 2003 by
123seanc.