Hi, Jeremy Whetzel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I'm in the process of writing up a script that I need to be able to > "randomly" switch around the lines in a text file. (ala a random mp3 > playlist) Would anyone have any suggestions? I was originally thinking > of using a random number generator for it, but if there's a tool that > would work better...? If you have 'bash', you can use: # scale should be larger than number of lines scale=1000 # number of lines in file ## if the file is fixed, you can hardcode this value ## otherwise, if the format has a count on the first line (like ## fonts.dir), you can use ## lines=`head -1 file` ## and change the '1' in the dc command below to '2'. lines=`wc -l file` # pick a random line line=`echo "$RANDOM $scale * 32768 / $lines * $scale / 1 + p" | dc` # print only that line sed -n "${line}p" file - Hari -- Raja R Harinath ------------------------------ [EMAIL PROTECTED] "When all else fails, read the instructions." -- Cahn's Axiom "Our policy is, when in doubt, do the right thing." -- Roy L Ash