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SEQ(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual SEQ(1)
NAME
seq - print sequences of numbers
SYNOPSIS
seq [-w] [-f format] [-s string] [-t string] [first [incr]] last
DESCRIPTION
The seq utility prints a sequence of numbers, one per line (default),
from first (default 1), to near last as possible, in increments of incr
(default 1). When first is larger than last, the default incr is -1.
All numbers are interpreted as floating point.
Normally integer values are printed as decimal integers.
The seq utility accepts the following options:
-f format, --format format
Use a printf(3) style format to print each number. Only
the A, a, E, e, F, f, G, g, and % conversion characters are
valid, along with any optional flags and an optional
numeric minimum field width or precision. The format can
contain character escape sequences in backslash notation as
defined in ANSI X3.159-1989 ("ANSI C89"). The default is
%g.
-s string, --separator string
Use string to separate numbers. The string can contain
character escape sequences in backslash notation as defined
in ANSI X3.159-1989 ("ANSI C89"). The default is \n.
-t string, --terminator string
Use string to terminate sequence of numbers. The string
can contain character escape sequences in backslash
notation as defined in ANSI X3.159-1989 ("ANSI C89"). This
option is useful when the default separator does not
contain a \n.
-w, --fixed-width
Equalize the widths of all numbers by padding with zeros as
necessary. This option has no effect with the -f option.
If any sequence numbers will be printed in exponential
notation, the default conversion is changed to %e.
EXIT STATUS
The seq utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
EXAMPLES
Generate a sequence from 1 to 3 (included) with a default increment of 1:
# seq 1 3
1
2
3
Generate a sequence from 3 to 1 (included) with a default increment of
-1:
and padding with leading zeroes.
# seq -w 0 .05 .1
0.00
0.05
0.10
Generate a sequence from 1 to 3 (included) with a default increment of 1,
a custom separator string and a custom terminator:
# seq -s "-->" -t "[end of list]\n" 1 3
1-->2-->3-->[end of list]
Generate a sequence from 1 to 2 (included) with an increment of 0.2 and
print the results with two digits after the decimal point (using a
printf(3) style format):
# seq -f %.2f 1 0.2 2
1.00
1.20
1.40
1.60
1.80
2.00
SEE ALSO
jot(1), printf(1), printf(3)
HISTORY
The seq command first appeared in Version 8 AT&T UNIX. A seq command
appeared in NetBSD 3.0, and was ported to FreeBSD 9.0. This command was
based on the command of the same name in Plan 9 from Bell Labs and the
GNU core utilities. The GNU seq command first appeared in the 1.13 shell
utilities release.
BUGS
The -w option does not handle the transition from pure floating point to
exponent representation very well. The seq command is not bug for bug
compatible with other implementations.
FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11 June 20, 2020 FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11