shuf(1)

shuf1

Generate random permutations

Usage

shuf [OPTION] ... [FILE]

shuf -e [OPTION] ... [ARG] ...

shuf -i LO-HI [OPTION] ...

Overview

Write a random permutation of the input lines to standard output.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-e, --echo

treat each ARG as an input line

-i, --input-range=LO-HI

treat each number LO through HI as an input line

-n, --head-count=COUNT

output at most COUNT lines

-o, --output=FILE

write result to FILE instead of standard output

--random-source=FILE

get random bytes from FILE

-r, --repeat

output lines can be repeated

-z, --zero-terminated

line delimiter is NUL, not newline

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

Releases

10 releases since Debian 5.0 (Lenny); the text changed 9 times.

  1. 5.0
  2. 6.0
  3. 7
  4. 8
  5. 9
  6. 10
  7. 11
  8. 12
  9. 13
  10. Arch

--head-count since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --repeat since Debian 8 (Jessie); -r since Debian 8 (Jessie).

--head-lines until Debian 5.0 (Lenny).

Author

Written by Paul Eggert.

Reporting bugs

Report bugs to: <[email protected]>.
Report any translation bugs to: <https://translationproject.org/team/>.
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

From coreutils 9.12-2 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.