Having random output from a file

Having random output from a file

[Mark van Dijk]

Hello,

I have a file that contains quotes that are separated by a blank line. Can zsh
help me to randomly output a quote from that file or should I use awk, or grep
or so? Should the first quote be prefaced by a blank line?

Thanks for helping me,
-Mark.

Re: Having random output from a file

[Mikael Magnusson]

On 2 April 2012 19:19, Mark van Dijk <lists+zsh@internecto.net> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a file that contains quotes that are separated by a blank line. Can zsh
> help me to randomly output a quote from that file or should I use awk, or grep
> or so? Should the first quote be prefaced by a blank line?
>
> Thanks for helping me,
> -Mark.

Are you trying to reinvent fortunes? Just separate the quotes by a
line that has a % on it and you can use fortunes directly. :)

-- 
Mikael Magnusson

Re: Having random output from a file

[Mark van Dijk]

On Mon, 2 Apr 2012 19:25:32 +0200
Mikael Magnusson <mikachu@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 2 April 2012 19:19, Mark van Dijk <lists+zsh@internecto.net> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I have a file that contains quotes that are separated by a blank
> > line. Can zsh help me to randomly output a quote from that file or
> > should I use awk, or grep or so? Should the first quote be prefaced
> > by a blank line?
> >
> > Thanks for helping me,
> > -Mark.
> 
> Are you trying to reinvent fortunes? Just separate the quotes by a
> line that has a % on it and you can use fortunes directly. :)
> 

Oh yes, good plan indeed. When I was reading Voltaire on wikiquotes I
couldn't resist sharing his wisdom. In (t)his regard it is remarkable
both how little has changed through the years and how ironic each quote
appears to be under this email. :-)

-- 
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
  -- Voltaire, 'Le dîner du comte de Boulainvilliers' (1767)

Re: Having random output from a file

[Eike von Seggern]

On Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 19:19 +0200, Mark van Dijk wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a file that contains quotes that are separated by a blank line. Can zsh
> help me to randomly output a quote from that file or should I use awk, or grep
> or so? Should the first quote be prefaced by a blank line?
> 
> Thanks for helping me,
> -Mark.

I use this alias to get a random line from a file (so it would only work
in your case if each quote is on a single line)

alias rndline='sort -R | head -1'

But it's not using any zsh magic.

Best
    eike

Re: Having random output from a file

[Christian Neukirchen]

Eike von Seggern <eikevons@yahoo.de> writes:

> I use this alias to get a random line from a file (so it would only work
> in your case if each quote is on a single line)
>
> alias rndline='sort -R | head -1'
>
> But it's not using any zsh magic.

If you depend on GNU coreutils anyway, you can just do "shuf -n1".

-- 
Christian Neukirchen  <chneukirchen@gmail.com>  http://chneukirchen.org