SHUFFLE(1)

NAME
shuffle - print a random permutation of the command line arguments

SYNOPSIS
shuffle [-0] [-f filename ...] [-n number] [-p number] [arg] [...]

DESCRIPTION
The shuffle program prints a random permutation (or “shuffle”) of its command line arguments. This can be useful in shell scripts for selecting a random order in which to do a set of tasks, view a set of files, etc.

If the -f option is given, the data is taken from that files' contents or if the filename is - “stdin”.

If the -n option is given, its argument is treated as a number, and the program prints a random permutation of the numbers greater than or equal to 0 and less than the argument.

If the -p option is given, its argument is treated as a number, and the program prints that number of randomly selected lines or arguments in a random order.

The -0 option changes the field separator character from \n to \0, so that the output is suitable to be sent to xargs(1) (to handle filenames with whitespace in them).

EXAMPLES

    $ shuffle a b c d
    c
    b
    d
    a
    $ shuffle -p 1 a b c d
    d
    $ shuffle -n 4 -p 2
    0
    3

SEE ALSO
jot(1), random(6)

HISTORY
The shuffle program first appeared in NetBSD 1.4.

AUTHORS
Written by Perry E. Metzger <perry@piermont.com>.