PERM(1)                            |STAT                           May 1986

NAME
     perm - permute line order

SYNOPSIS
     perm [-a | -c | -e | -i | -n] [-r] [-l lines] [-s seed]

DESCRIPTION
     _p_e_r_m reads lines from the standard input and prints them in permuted
     order.  By default, this order is random, but the order can be sorted
     numerically or alphabetically with options.

OPTIONS
     -a   Sort lines by alphabetic ordering.  Initial blank space is not
          ignored.

     -c   Use a case-insensitive comparison and sort by alphabetic
          ordering.

     -e   Sort lines by exponential (scientific) notation ordering.
          Initial blank space is ignored.  This method does true numerical
          sorting for all numbers, but is much slower than integer or
          numerical sorting.

     -i   Sort lines by integer ordering.  Initial blank space is ignored.

     -l lines
          Set the maximum number of lines to be read.

     -n   Sort lines by special numeric ordering.  Numbers with decimal
          points are allowed, and compared by a special fast sorting
          algorithm that is almost as fast as integer sorting.

     -r   Reverse the order of comparison for sorting options.

     -s seed
          Provide an integer seed for the random number generator.
          Otherwise, the seeding is done with the process number and the
          time, or, on some systems, by prompting for a seed.

NOTES
     The program duplicates some of the _s_o_r_t program's functions, but
     provides true numerical sorting for MSDOS whose _s_o_r_t only does
     alphabetic sorts.

LIMITS
     Use the -L option to determine the program limits.
