man(1) Manual page archive


     RANDOM(1)                                               RANDOM(1)

     NAME
          random - sample lines from a file or provide random exit
          code

     SYNOPSIS
          random [ -e ] [ n ]

     DESCRIPTION
          Random reads the standard input and copies each line to the
          standard output with probability 1/n.

          Option -e writes no output and returns a random exit code in
          the range [0,n-1].

          The default value of n is 2.

          To select just one line randomly from a file use fortune(6).

     BUGS
          Successive results of option -e are highly correlated if
          random is called more than once per second.