1calc(1) General Commands Manual calc(1)
2
6 calc - arbitrary precision calculator
7
9 calc [-c] [-C] [-d]
10 [-D calc_debug[:resource_debug[:user_debug]]]
11 [-e] [-h] [-i] [-m mode] [-O]
12 [-p] [-q] [-s] [-u] [-v] [[--] calc_cmd ...]
13 #!/usr/bin/calc [other_flags ...] -f
15
17 CALC OPTIONS
19 -c Continue reading command lines even after a scan/parse error has
21 caused the abandonment of a line. Note that this option only
22 deals with scanning and parsing of the calc language. It does
23 not deal with execution or run-time errors.
24 For example:
26 calc read many_errors.cal
28 will cause calc to abort on the first syntax error, whereas:
30 calc -c read many_errors.cal
32 will cause calc to try to process each line being read despite
34 the scan/parse errors that it encounters.
35 By default, calc startup resource files are silently ignored if
37 not found. This flag will report missing startup resource files
38 unless -d is also given.
39 -C Permit the execution of custom builtin functions. Without this
42 flag, calling the custom() builtin function will simply generate
43 an error.
44 Use of this flag may cause calc to execute functions that are
46 non-standard and that are not portable. Custom builtin func‐
47 tions are disabled by default for this reason.
48 -d Disable the printing of the opening title. The printing of
51 resource file debug and informational messages is also disabled
52 as if config("resource_debug", 0) had been executed.
53 For example:
55 calc "read qtime; qtime(2)"
57 will output something like:
59 qtime(utc_hr_offset) defined
61 It's nearly ten past six.
62 whereas:
64 calc -d "read qtime; qtime(2)"
66 will just say:
68 It's nearly ten past six.
70 This flag disables the reporting of missing calc startup
72 resource files.
73 -D calc_debug[:resource_debug[:user_debug]]
76 Force the initial value of config("calc_debug"), con‐
77 fig("resource_debug") and config("user_debug").
78 The : separated strings are interpreted as signed 32 bit inte‐
80 gers. After an optional leading sign a leading zero indicates
81 octal conversion, and a leading ``0x'' or ``0X'' hexadecimal
82 conversion. Otherwise, decimal conversion is assumed.
83 By default, calc_debug is 0, resource_debug is 3 and user_debug
85 is 0.
86 For more information use the following calc command:
88 help config
90 -e Ignore any environment variables on startup. The getenv()
93 builtin will still return values, however.
94 -f This flag is required when using calc in shell script mode. It
97 must be at the end of the initial #! line of the script.
98 This flag is normally only at the end of a calc shell script.
100 If the first line of an executable file begins #! followed by
101 the absolute pathname of the calc program and the flag -f as in:
102 #!/usr/bin/calc [other_flags ...] -f
104 the rest of the file will be processed in shell script mode.
106 See SHELL SCRIPT MODE section of this man page below for
107 details.
108 The actual form of this flag is:
110 -f filename
112 On systems that treat an executable that begins with #! as a
114 script, the path of the executable is appended by the kernel as
115 the final argument to the exec() system call. This is why the
116 -f flag at the very end of the #! line.
117 It is possible use -f filename on the command line:
119 calc [other_flags ...] -f filename
121 This will cause calc to process lines in filename in shell
123 script mode.
124 Use of -f implies -s. In addition, -d and -p are implied if -i
126 is not given.
127 -h Print a help message. This option implies -q. This is equiva‐
130 lent to the calc command help help. The help facility is dis‐
131 abled unless the mode is 5 or 7. See -m.
132 -i Become interactive if possible. This flag will cause calc to
135 drop into interactive mode after the calc_cmd arguments on the
136 command line are evaluated. Without this flag, calc will exit
137 after they are evaluated.
138 For example:
140 calc 2+5
142 will print the value 7 and exit whereas:
144 calc -i 2+5
146 will print the value 7 and prompt the user for more calc com‐
148 mands.
149 -m mode
152 This flag sets the permission mode of calc. It controls the
153 ability for calc to open files and execute programs. Mode may
154 be a number from 0 to 7.
155 The mode value is interpreted in a way similar to that of the
157 chmod(1) octal mode:
158 0 do not open any file, do not execute progs
160 1 do not open any file
161 2 do not open files for reading, do not execute progs
162 3 do not open files for reading
163 4 do not open files for writing, do not execute progs
164 5 do not open files for writing
165 6 do not execute any program
166 7 allow everything (default mode)
167 If one wished to run calc from a privileged user, one might want
169 to use -m 0 in an effort to make calc somewhat more secure.
170 Mode bits for reading and writing apply only on an open. Files
172 already open are not effected. Thus if one wanted to use the -m
173 0 in an effort to make calc somewhat more secure, but still
174 wanted to read and write a specific file, one might want to do
175 in sh(1), ksh(1), bash(1)-like shells:
176 calc -m 0 3<a.file
178 Files presented to calc in this way are opened in an unknown
180 mode. Calc will attempt to read or write them if directed.
181 If the mode disables opening of files for reading, then the
183 startup resource files are disabled as if -q was given. The
184 reading of key bindings is also disabled when the mode disables
185 opening of files for reading.
186 -O Use the old classic defaults instead of the default configura‐
189 tion. This flag as the same effect as executing config("all",
190 "oldcfg") at startup time.
191 NOTE: Older versions of calc used -n to setup a modified form of
193 the default calc configuration. The -n flag currently does
194 nothing. Use of the -n flag is now deprecated and may be used
195 for something else in the future.
196 -p Pipe processing is enabled by use of -p. For example:
199 calc -p "2^21701-1" | fizzbin
201 In pipe mode, calc does not prompt, does not print leading tabs
203 and does not print the initial header. The -p flag overrides
204 -i.
205 -q Disable the reading of the startup scripts.
208 -s By default, all calc_cmd args are evaluated and executed. This
211 flag will disable their evaluation and instead make them avail‐
212 able as strings for the argv() builtin function.
213 -u Disable buffering of stdin and stdout.
216 -v Print the calc version number and exit.
219 -- The double dash indicates to calc that no more option follow.
222 Thus calc will ignore a later argument on the command line even
223 if it starts with a dash. This is useful when entering negative
224 values on the command line as in:
225 calc -p -- -1 - -7
227 CALC COMMAND LINE
232 With no calc_cmd arguments, calc operates interactively. If one or
234 more arguments are given on the command line and -s is NOT given, then
235 calc will read and execute them and either attempt to go interactive
236 according as the -i flag was present or absent.
237 If -s is given, calc will not evaluate any calc_cmd arguments but
239 instead make them available as strings to the argv() builtin function.
240 Sufficiently simple commands with no no characters like parentheses,
242 brackets, semicolons, '*', which have special interpretations in UNIX
243 shells may be entered, possibly with spaces, until the terminating new‐
244 line. For example:
245 calc 23 + 47
247 will print 70. However, command lines will have problems:
249 calc 23 * 47
251 calc -23 + 47
253 The first example above fails because the shell interprets the '*' as a
255 file glob. The second example fails because '-23' is viewed as a calc
256 option (which it is not) and do calc objects to that it thinks of as an
257 unknown option. These cases can usually be made to work as expected by
258 enclosing the command between quotes:
259 calc '23 * 47'
261 calc "print sqrt(2), exp(1)"
263 or in parentheses and quotes to avoid leading -'s as in:
265 calc '(-23 + 47)'
267 One may also use a double dash to denote that calc options have ended
269 as in:
270 calc -- -23 + 47
272 calc -q -- -23 + 47
274 If '!' is to be used to indicate the factorial function, for shells
276 like csh[4m(1) for which '!' followed by a non-space character is used for
277 history substitution, it may be necessary to include a space or use a
278 backslash to escape the special meaning of '!'. For example, the com‐
279 mand:
280 print 27!^2
282 may have to be replaced by:
284 print 27! ^2 or print 27^2
286 Reading from standard input when calc is part of a pipe works as long
288 as the -p flag is given to calc. For example, this will print chongo
289 was here:
290 echo chongo was here | calc -p 'print fgetline(files(0));'
292 while this does not:
295 echo chongo was here | calc 'print fgetline(files(0));'
297 nor will this print chongo was here:
300 echo chongo was here | calc -i 'print fgetline(files(0));'
302 This is because without -p, the interactive parser, in an effort to
305 parse interactive commands, flushes data on standard input.
306 CALC STARTUP FILES
310 Normally on startup, if the environment variable $CALCRC is undefined
312 and calc is invoked without the -q flag, or if $CALCRC is defined and
313 calc is invoked with -e, calc looks for a file "startup" in the calc
314 resource directory .calcrc in the user's home directory, and .calcinit
315 in the current directory. If one or more of these are found, they are
316 read in succession as calc scripts and their commands executed. When
317 defined, $CALCRC is to contain a ':' separated list of names of files,
318 and if calc is then invoked without either the -q or -e flags, these
319 files are read in succession and their commands executed. No error
320 condition is produced if a listed file is not found.
321 If the mode specified by -m disables opening of files for reading, then
323 the reading of startup files is also disabled as if -q was given.
324 CALC FILE SEARCH PATH
327 If the environment variable $CALCPATH is undefined, or if it is defined
329 and calc is invoked with the -e flag, when a file name not beginning
330 with /, ~ or ./, is specified as in:
331 calc read myfile
333 calc searches in succession:
335 ./myfile
337 ./myfile.cal
338 /usr/lib64/myfile
339 /usr/lib64/myfile.cal
340 /usr/share/calc/custom/myfile
341 /usr/share/calc/custom/myfile.cal
342 If the file is found, the search stops and the commands in the file are
344 executed. It is an error if no readable file with the specified name
345 is found. An alternative search path can be specified by defining
346 $CALCPATH in the same way as PATH is defined, as a ':' separated list
347 of directories, and then invoking calc without the -e flag.
348 Calc treats all open files, other than stdin, stdout and stderr as
350 files available for reading and writing. One may present calc with an
351 already open file using sh(1), ksh(1), bash(1)-like shells is to:
352 calc 3<open_file 4<open_file2
354 For more information use the following calc commands:
356 help help
358 help overview
359 help usage
360 help environment
361 help config
362 SHELL SCRIPT MODE
366 If the first line of an executable file begins #! followed by the
368 absolute pathname of the calc program and the flag -f as in:
369 #!/usr/bin/calc [other_flags ...] -f
371 the rest of the file will be processed in shell script mode. Note that
373 -f must at the end of the initial ``#!'' line. Any other optional
374 other_flags must come before the -f.
375 In shell script mode the contents of the file are read and executed as
377 if they were in a file being processed by a read command, except that a
378 "command" beginning with '#' followed by whitespace and ending at the
379 next newline is treated as a comment. Any optional other_flags will be
380 parsed first followed by the later lines within the script itself.
381 In shell script mode, -s is always assumed. In addition, -d and -p are
383 automatically set if -i is not given.
384 For example, if the file /tmp/mersenne:
386 #!/usr/bin/calc -q -f
388 #
389 # mersenne - an example of a calc shell script file
390 /* parse args */
392 if (argv() != 1) {
393 fprintf(files(2), "usage: %s exp\n", config("program"));
394 abort "must give one exponent arg";
395 }
396 /* print the mersenne number */
398 print "2^": argv(0) : "-1 =", 2^eval(argv(0))-1;
399 is made an executable file by:
401 chmod +x /tmp/mersenne
403 then the command line:
405 /tmp/mersenne 127
407 will print:
409 2^127-1 = 170141183460469231731687303715884105727
411 Note that because -s is assumed in shell script mode and non-dashed
413 args are made available as strings via the argv() builtin function.
414 Therefore:
415 2^eval(argv(0))-1
417 will print the decimal value of 2^n-1 but
419 2^argv(0)-1
421 will not.
423 DATA TYPES
426 Fundamental builtin data types include integers, real numbers, rational
428 numbers, complex numbers and strings.
429 By use of an object, one may define an arbitrarily complex data types.
431 One may define how such objects behave a wide range of operations such
432 as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, negation, squaring,
433 modulus, rounding, exponentiation, equality, comparison, printing and
434 so on.
435 For more information use the following calc commands:
437 help types
439 help obj
440 show objfuncs
441 VARIABLES
444 Variables in calc are typeless. In other words, the fundamental type
446 of a variable is determined by its content. Before a variable is
447 assigned a value it has the value of zero.
448 The scope of a variable may be global, local to a file, or local to a
450 procedure. Values may be grouped together in a matrix, or into a a
451 list that permits stack and queue style operations.
452 For more information use the following calc commands:
454 help variable
456 help mat
457 help list
458 show globals
459 INPUT/OUTPUT
462 A leading ``0x'' implies a hexadecimal value, a leading ``0b'' implies
464 a binary value, and a ``0'' followed by a digit implies an octal value.
465 Complex numbers are indicated by a trailing ``i'' such as in ``3+4i''.
466 Strings may be delimited by either a pair of single or double quotes.
467 By default, calc prints values as if they were floating point numbers.
468 One may change the default to print values in a number of modes includ‐
469 ing fractions, integers and exponentials.
470 A number of stdio-like file I/O operations are provided. One may open,
472 read, write, seek and close files. Filenames are subject to `` ''
473 expansion to home directories in a way similar to that of the Korn or
474 C-Shell.
475 For example:
477 ~/.calcrc
479 ~chongo/lib/fft_multiply.cal
480 For more information use the following calc command:
482 help file
484 CALC LANGUAGE
487 The calc language is a C-like language. The language includes commands
489 such as variable declarations, expressions, tests, labels, loops, file
490 operations, function calls. These commands are very similar to their
491 counterparts in C.
492 The language also include a number of commands particular to calc
494 itself. These include commands such as function definition, help,
495 reading in resource files, dump files to a file, error notification,
496 configuration control and status.
497 For more information use the following calc command:
499 help command
501 help statement
502 help expression
503 help operator
504 help config
505
507 /usr/bin/calc
509 calc binary
510 /usr/share/calc/cscript/*
512 calc shell scripts
513 /usr/lib64/*.cal
515 calc standard resource files
516 /usr/lib64/help/*
518 help files
519 /usr/lib64/bindings
521 non-GNU-readline command line editor bindings
522 /usr/include/calc/*.h
524 include files for C interface use
525 /usr/lib64/libcalc.a
527 calc binary link library
528 /usr/lib64/libcustcalc.a
530 custom binary link library
531 /usr/share/calc/custom/*.cal
533 custom resource files
534 /usr/share/calc/custhelp/*
536 custom help files
537
539 CALCPATH
541 A :-separated list of directories used to search for calc resource
542 filenames that do not begin with /, ./ or ~.
543 Default value: .:./cal:~/.cal:/usr/share/calc
545 CALCRC
547 On startup (unless -h or -q was given on the command line), calc
548 searches for files along this :-separated environment variable.
549 Default value: /usr/share/calc/startup:~/.calcrc:./.calcinit
551 CALCBINDINGS
553 On startup (unless -h or -q was given on the command line, or -m
554 disallows opening files for reading), calc reads key bindings from
555 the filename specified by this environment variable. The key
556 binding file is searched for along the $CALCPATH list of directo‐
557 ries.
558 Default value: binding
560 This variable is not used if calc was compiled with GNU-readline
562 support. In that case, the standard readline mechanisms (see
563 readline(3)) are used.
564
566 The main chunk of calc was written by David I. Bell.
568 The calc primary mirror, calc mailing list and calc bug report process‐
570 ing is performed by Landon Curt Noll.
571 Landon Curt Noll maintains the master reference source, performs
573 release control functions as well as other calc maintenance functions.
574 Thanks for suggestions and encouragement from Peter Miller, Neil Jus‐
576 tusson, and Landon Noll.
577 Thanks to Stephen Rothwell for writing the original version of hist.c
579 which is used to do the command line editing.
580 Thanks to Ernest W. Bowen for supplying many improvements in accuracy
582 and generality for some numeric functions. Much of this was in terms
583 of actual code which I gratefully accepted. Ernest also supplied the
584 original text for many of the help files.
585 Portions of this program are derived from an earlier set of public
587 domain arbitrarily precision routines which was posted to the net
588 around 1984. By now, there is almost no recognizable code left from
589 that original source.
590
592 Calc is open software, and is covered under version 2 of the GNU Gen‐
595 eral Public License. You are welcome to change it and/or distribute
596 copies of it under certain conditions. The calc commands:
597 help copyright
599 help copying
600 help copying-gpl
601 should display the contents of the COPYING and COPYING-GPL files.
603 Those files contain information about the calc's GNU General Public
604 License, and in particular the conditions under which you are allowed
605 to change it and/or distribute copies of it.
606 You should have received a copy of the version 2 of the GNU General
608 Public License. If you do not have these files, write to:
609 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
611 51 Franklin Street
612 Fifth Floor
613 Boston, MA 02110-1301
614 USA
615 Calc is copyrighted in several different ways. These ways include:
617 Copyright (C) year David I. Bell
619 Copyright (C) year David I. Bell and Landon Curt Noll
620 Copyright (C) year David I. Bell and Ernest Bowen
621 Copyright (C) year David I. Bell, Landon Curt Noll and Ernest Bowen
622 Copyright (C) year Landon Curt Noll
623 Copyright (C) year Ernest Bowen and Landon Curt Noll
624 Copyright (C) year Ernest Bowen
625 This man page is:
627 Copyright (C) 1999 Landon Curt Noll
629 and is covered under version 2 GNU General Public License.
631
633 To contribute comments, suggestions, enhancements and interesting calc
636 resource files, and shell scripts please join the calc-tester low vol‐
637 ume moderated calc mailing list.
638 To the calc-tester mailing list, visit the following URL:
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642 To help determine you are a human and not just a spam bot, you will be
644 required to provide the following additional information:
645 Your Name
647 Calc Version
649 For example, the current version is: 2.12.6.7
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655 Consult a calendar :-)
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658 if you have problems with the above procedure, please send EMail to our
659 special address:
660 calc-tester-maillist-help at asthe dot com
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675
677 Send bug reports and bug fixes to:
680 calc-bug-report at asthe dot com
682 NOTE: Remove spaces and replace 'at' with @, 'dot' with .
684 NOTE: Yes, the EMail address uses 'asthe',
686 while the web site uses 'isthe'.
687 Your subject must contain the words:
689 calc bug report
691 You may have additional words in your subject line.
693 However, you may find it more helpful to simply subscribe to the
694 calc-tester mailing list (see above) and then to send your report
695 to that mailing list as a wider set calc testers may be able to
696 help you.
697 See the BUGS source file or use the calc command:
699 help bugs
701 for more information about bug reporting.
703
705 Landon Noll maintains the calc web site is located at:
707 www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/comp/calc/
709 Share and Enjoy! :-)
7112007-02-06 ^..^ calc(1)