matho-sumsq1

Usage

Overview

This command-line utility is optionally part of the mathomatic(1) package. It finds the minimum number of positive integers that when squared and added together, equal the given number. There is a proof that no more than 4 squares summed together are required to represent any positive integer.

The command-line may contain positive integers to find the minimum squares of, they must be less than 2147483648 (2^31) on 32-bit systems or less than 9223372036854775808 (2^63) on 64-bit systems. If "+" is appended to the given number, the program counts up from the given number. If the minimum number of squares is 2, this program displays all possible combinations with 2 squares for the given number, otherwise it just displays the first combination it finds.

If no command-line arguments are given, the programs reads the numbers from standard input.