shuf(1) — Linux manual page

SHUF(1)                       User Commands                       SHUF(1)

NAME         top

       shuf - generate random permutations

SYNOPSIS         top

       shuf [OPTION]... [FILE]
       shuf -e [OPTION]... [ARG]...
       shuf -i LO-HI [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION         top

       Write a random permutation of the input lines to standard output.

       With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short
       options too.

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#shuf-e\-e, --echo]8;;\
              treat each ARG as an input line

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#shuf-i\-i, --input-range=LO-HI]8;;\
              treat each number LO through HI as an input line

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#shuf-n\-n, --head-count=COUNT]8;;\
              output at most COUNT lines

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#shuf-o\-o, --output=FILE]8;;\
              write result to FILE instead of standard output

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#shuf--random-source\--random-source=FILE]8;;\
              get random bytes from FILE

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#shuf-r\-r, --repeat]8;;\
              output lines can be repeated

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#shuf-z\-z, --zero-terminated]8;;\
              line delimiter is NUL, not newline

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/shuf#shuf--help\--help]8;;\ display this help and exit

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/shuf#shuf--version\--version]8;;\
              output version information and exit

AUTHOR         top

       Written by Paul Eggert.

REPORTING BUGS         top

       Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
       Report any translation bugs to
       <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT         top

       Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+:
       GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
       There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO         top

       Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/shuf>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) shuf invocation'

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the coreutils (basic file, shell and text
       manipulation utilities) project.  Information about the project
       can be found at ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/⟩.  If you
       have a bug report for this manual page, see
       ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/⟩.  This page was obtained
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       send a mail to man-pages@man7.org

GNU coreutils 9.11              April 2026                        SHUF(1)

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