Re: select N random lines in a file

[Thomas Adam <thomas@edulinux.homeunix.org>]

On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 02:35:14PM -0500, Lance Hoffmeyer wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I would like to write a script that will select N number of
> random lines in a file.  Any suggestions on how to do this?

Here's one that prints random lines of files, ensuring not to overshoot the
known length of the number of lines in the file:

sed -n $[ $RANDOM % $(wc -l < $FILE) + 1 ],$[ $RANDOM % $(wc -l < ./foo) + 1 ]p $FILE

Where $FILE is the filename. If you want to control the number of lines it
will print, change the values. :)

-- Thomas Adam

--
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