From c5ccf29bbfaab01ed893c9ca3a3843181c329317 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jim Meyering Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2012 08:09:18 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] doc: update seq description * doc/coreutils.texi (seq invocation): Update an example and mention that with the new constraints, seq can print arbitrarily large numbers. --- doc/coreutils.texi | 12 ++++++++---- 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi index f2620bc5a5..cb4ad838d8 100644 --- a/doc/coreutils.texi +++ b/doc/coreutils.texi @@ -16249,12 +16249,16 @@ case is that @command{seq} works with integers through @math{2^{64}}, and larger integers may not be numerically correct: @example -$ seq 18446744073709551616 1 18446744073709551618 -18446744073709551616 -18446744073709551616 -18446744073709551618 +$ seq 50000000000000000000 2 50000000000000000004 +50000000000000000000 +50000000000000000000 +50000000000000000004 @end example +However, note that when limited to non-negative whole numbers, +an increment of 1 and no format-specifying option, seq can print +arbitrarily large numbers. + Be careful when using @command{seq} with outlandish values: otherwise you may see surprising results, as @command{seq} uses floating point internally. For example, on the x86 platform, where the internal -- 2.47.2