shuf Command Examples

Generate random permutations. More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/shuf-invocation.html.

• Randomize the order of lines in a file and output the result:

shuf {{path/to/file}}

• Only output the first 5 entries of the result:

shuf {{[-n|--head-count]}} 5 {{path/to/file}}

• Write the output to another file:

shuf {{path/to/input_file}} {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/output_file}}

• Generate 3 random numbers in the range 1-10 (inclusive):

shuf {{[-n|--head-count]}} 3 {{[-i|--input-range]}} 1-10 {{[-r|--repeat]}}