shuf - Man Page

• 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]

tldr.sh

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

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.

-e,  --echo

treat each ARG as an input line

-i,  --input-range=LO-HI

treat each number LO through HI as an input line

-n,  --head-count=COUNT

output at most COUNT lines

-o,  --output=FILE

write result to FILE instead of standard output

--random-source=FILE

get random bytes from FILE

-r,  --repeat

output lines can be repeated

-z,  --zero-terminated

line delimiter is NUL, not newline

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

Written by Paul Eggert.

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 © 2025 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.

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

sort(1).