Provided by: apcalc-common_2.12.5.0-1build1_all bug

NAME

       calc - arbitrary precision calculator

SYNOPSIS

       calc [-c] [-C] [-d]
            [-D calc_debug[:resource_debug[:user_debug]]]
            [-e] [-h] [-i] [-m mode] [-O]
            [-p] [-q] [-s] [-u] [-v] [[--] calc_cmd ...]

       #!/usr/bin/calc [other_flags ...] -f

DESCRIPTION


       CALC OPTIONS

       -c     Continue reading command lines even after a scan/parse error has caused the abandonment of a line.
              Note that this option only deals with scanning and parsing of the calc language.  It does not deal
              with execution or run-time errors.

              For example:

                   calc read many_errors.cal

              will cause calc to abort on the first syntax error, whereas:

                   calc -c read many_errors.cal

              will  cause  calc  to  try  to  process each line being read despite the scan/parse errors that it
              encounters.

              By default, calc startup resource files are silently ignored if not found.  This flag will  report
              missing startup resource files unless -d is also given.

       -C     Permit the execution of custom builtin functions.  Without this flag, calling the custom() builtin
              function will simply generate an error.

              Use of this flag may cause calc to execute functions  that  are  non-standard  and  that  are  not
              portable.  Custom builtin functions are disabled by default for this reason.

       -d     Disable  the printing of the opening title.  The printing of resource file debug and informational
              messages is also disabled as if config("resource_debug", 0) had been executed.

              For example:

                   calc "read qtime; qtime(2)"

              will output something like:

                   qtime(utc_hr_offset) defined
                   It's nearly ten past six.

              whereas:

                   calc -d "read qtime; qtime(2)"

              will just say:

                   It's nearly ten past six.

              This flag disables the reporting of missing calc startup resource files.

       -D calc_debug[:resource_debug[:user_debug]]
              Force    the    initial    value    of    config("calc_debug"),    config("resource_debug")    and
              config("user_debug").

              The : separated strings are interpreted as signed 32 bit integers.  After an optional leading sign
              a leading zero indicates octal conversion, and a leading ``0x'' or ``0X'' hexadecimal  conversion.
              Otherwise, decimal conversion is assumed.

              By default, calc_debug is 0, resource_debug is 3 and user_debug is 0.

              For more information use the following calc command:

                   help config

       -e     Ignore  any  environment  variables  on  startup.   The getenv() builtin will still return values,
              however.

       -f     This flag is required when using calc in shell script mode.  It must be at the end of the  initial
              #!  line of the script.

              This  flag is normally only at the end of a calc shell script.  If the first line of an executable
              file begins #!  followed by the absolute pathname of the calc program and the flag -f as in:

                   #!/usr/bin/calc [other_flags ...] -f

              the rest of the file will be processed in shell script mode.  See SHELL  SCRIPT  MODE  section  of
              this man page below for details.

              The actual form of this flag is:

                   -f filename

              On  systems  that treat an executable that begins with #!  as a script, the path of the executable
              is appended by the kernel as the final argument to the exec() system call.  This  is  why  the  -f
              flag at the very end of the #!  line.

              It is possible use -f filename on the command line:

                   calc [other_flags ...] -f filename

              This will cause calc to process lines in filename in shell script mode.

              Use of -f implies -s.  In addition, -d and -p are implied if -i is not given.

       -h     Print  a help message.  This option implies -q.  This is equivalent to the calc command help help.
              The help facility is disabled unless the mode is 5 or 7.  See -m.

       -i     Become interactive if possible.  This flag will cause calc to drop into interactive mode after the
              calc_cmd  arguments  on  the  command line are evaluated.  Without this flag, calc will exit after
              they are evaluated.

              For example:

                   calc 2+5

              will print the value 7 and exit whereas:

                   calc -i 2+5

              will print the value 7 and prompt the user for more calc commands.

       -m mode
              This flag sets the permission mode of calc.  It controls the ability for calc to  open  files  and
              execute programs.  Mode may be a number from 0 to 7.

              The mode value is interpreted in a way similar to that of the chmod(1) octal mode:

                   0  do not open any file, do not execute progs
                   1  do not open any file
                   2  do not open files for reading, do not execute progs
                   3  do not open files for reading
                   4  do not open files for writing, do not execute progs
                   5  do not open files for writing
                   6  do not execute any program
                   7  allow everything (default mode)

              If  one wished to run calc from a privileged user, one might want to use -m 0 in an effort to make
              calc somewhat more secure.

              Mode bits for reading and writing apply only on an open.  Files already  open  are  not  effected.
              Thus  if  one  wanted  to  use  the -m 0 in an effort to make calc somewhat more secure, but still
              wanted to read and write a specific file, one might want to  do  in  sh(1),  ksh(1),  bash(1)-like
              shells:

                   calc -m 0 3<a.file

              Files  presented  to calc in this way are opened in an unknown mode.  Calc will attempt to read or
              write them if directed.

              If the mode disables opening of files for reading, then the startup resource files are disabled as
              if  -q  was given.  The reading of key bindings is also disabled when the mode disables opening of
              files for reading.

       -O     Use the old classic defaults instead of the default configuration.  This flag as the  same  effect
              as executing config("all", "oldcfg") at startup time.

              NOTE:  Older  versions of calc used -n to setup a modified form of the default calc configuration.
              The -n flag currently does nothing.  Use of the -n flag is now deprecated  and  may  be  used  for
              something else in the future.

       -p     Pipe processing is enabled by use of -p.  For example:

                   calc -p "2^21701-1" | fizzbin

              In  pipe  mode,  calc  does not prompt, does not print leading tabs and does not print the initial
              header.  The -p flag overrides -i.

       -q     Disable the reading of the startup scripts.

       -s     By default, all calc_cmd args are evaluated and executed.  This flag will disable their evaluation
              and instead make them available as strings for the argv() builtin function.

       -u     Disable buffering of stdin and stdout.

       -v     Print the calc version number and exit.

       --     The  double  dash  indicates  to  calc that no more options follow.  Thus calc will ignore a later
              argument on the command line even if it starts with a dash.  This is useful when entering negative
              values on the command line as in:

                   calc -p -- -1 - -7

       CALC COMMAND LINE

       With  no  calc_cmd  arguments,  calc  operates  interactively.  If one or more arguments are given on the
       command line and -s is NOT given, then calc  will  read  and  execute  them  and  either  attempt  to  go
       interactive according as the -i flag was present or absent.

       If  -s is given, calc will not evaluate any calc_cmd arguments but instead make them available as strings
       to the argv() builtin function.

       Sufficiently simple commands with no characters like parentheses, brackets, semicolons, '*',  which  have
       special  interpretations  in  UNIX  shells  may  be  entered, possibly with spaces, until the terminating
       newline.  For example:

            calc 23 + 47

       will print 70.  However, command lines will have problems:

            calc 23 * 47

            calc -23 + 47

       The first example above fails because the shell interprets the '*' as a file glob.   The  second  example
       fails because '-23' is viewed as a calc option (which it is not) and do calc objects to that it thinks of
       as an unknown option.  These cases can usually be made to work  as  expected  by  enclosing  the  command
       between quotes:

            calc '23 * 47'

            calc "print sqrt(2), exp(1)"

       or in parentheses and quotes to avoid leading -'s as in:

            calc '(-23 + 47)'

       One may also use a double dash to denote that calc options have ended as in:

            calc -- -23 + 47

            calc -q -- -23 + 47

       If '!' is to be used to indicate the factorial function, for shells like csh(1) for which '!' followed by
       a non-space character is used for history substitution, it may be necessary to include a space or  use  a
       backslash to escape the special meaning of '!'.  For example, the command:

            print 27!^2

       may have to be replaced by:

            print 27! ^2   or   print 27^2

       CALC STARTUP FILES

       Normally  on startup, if the environment variable $CALCRC is undefined and calc is invoked without the -q
       flag, or if $CALCRC is defined and calc is invoked with -e, calc looks for a file "startup" in  the  calc
       resource  directory .calcrc in the user's home directory, and .calcinit in the current directory.  If one
       or more of these are found, they are read in succession as calc  scripts  and  their  commands  executed.
       When  defined,  $CALCRC is to contain a ':' separated list of names of files, and if calc is then invoked
       without either the -q or -e flags, these files are read in succession and their  commands  executed.   No
       error condition is produced if a listed file is not found.

       If  the  mode specified by -m disables opening of files for reading, then the reading of startup files is
       also disabled as if -q was given.

       CALC FILE SEARCH PATH

       If the environment variable $CALCPATH is undefined, or if it is defined and calc is invoked with  the  -e
       flag, when a file name not beginning with /, ~ or ./, is specified as in:

            calc read myfile

       calc searches in succession:

            ./myfile
            ./myfile.cal
            /usr/lib/myfile
            /usr/lib/myfile.cal
            /usr/share/calc/custom/myfile
            /usr/share/calc/custom/myfile.cal

       If  the  file is found, the search stops and the commands in the file are executed.  It is an error if no
       readable file with the specified name is found.  An alternative search path can be specified by  defining
       $CALCPATH  in  the same way as PATH is defined, as a ':' separated list of directories, and then invoking
       calc without the -e flag.

       Calc treats all open files, other than stdin, stdout and  stderr  as  files  available  for  reading  and
       writing.  One may present calc with an already open file using sh(1), ksh(1), bash(1)-like shells is to:

            calc 3<open_file 4<open_file2

       For more information use the following calc commands:

            help help
            help overview
            help usage
            help environment
            help config

       SHELL SCRIPT MODE

       If  the first line of an executable file begins #!  followed by the absolute pathname of the calc program
       and the flag -f as in:

            #!/usr/bin/calc [other_flags ...] -f

       the rest of the file will be processed in shell script mode.  Note that -f must be  at  the  end  of  the
       initial ``#!'' line.  Any other optional other_flags must come before the -f.

       In  shell  script  mode  the  contents  of the file are read and executed as if they were in a file being
       processed by a read command, except that a "command" beginning with '#' followed by whitespace and ending
       at  the  next newline is treated as a comment.  Any optional other_flags will be parsed first followed by
       the later lines within the script itself.

       In shell script mode, -s is always assumed.  In addition, -d and -p are automatically set if  -i  is  not
       given.

       For example, if the file /tmp/mersenne:

            #!/usr/bin/calc -q -f
            #
            # mersenne - an example of a calc shell script file

            /* parse args */
            if (argv() != 1) {
                fprintf(files(2), "usage: %s exp\n", config("program"));
                abort "must give one exponent arg";
            }

            /* print the mersenne number */
            print "2^": argv(0) : "-1 =", 2^eval(argv(0))-1;

       is made an executable file by:

            chmod +x /tmp/mersenne

       then the command line:

            /tmp/mersenne 127

       will print:

            2^127-1 = 170141183460469231731687303715884105727

       Note  that  because  -s is assumed in shell script mode and non-dashed args are made available as strings
       via the argv() builtin function.  Therefore:

            2^eval(argv(0))-1

       will print the decimal value of 2^n-1 but

            2^argv(0)-1

       will not.

       DATA TYPES

       Fundamental builtin data types include integers, real numbers,  rational  numbers,  complex  numbers  and
       strings.

       By  use  of an object, one may define an arbitrarily complex data types.  One may define how such objects
       behave a wide range of operations such as  addition,  subtraction,  multiplication,  division,  negation,
       squaring, modulus, rounding, exponentiation, equality, comparison, printing and so on.

       For more information use the following calc commands:

          help types
          help obj
          show objfuncs

       VARIABLES

       Variables  in calc are typeless.  In other words, the fundamental type of a variable is determined by its
       content.  Before a variable is assigned a value it has the value of zero.

       The scope of a variable may be global, local to a file, or local to a procedure.  Values may  be  grouped
       together in a matrix, or into a list that permits stack and queue style operations.

       For more information use the following calc commands:

          help variable
          help mat
          help list
          show globals

       INPUT/OUTPUT

       A  leading  ``0x''  implies  a  hexadecimal  value,  a leading ``0b'' implies a binary value, and a ``0''
       followed by a digit implies an octal value.  Complex numbers are indicated by a trailing ``i'' such as in
       ``3+4i''.  Strings may be delimited by either a pair of single or double quotes.  By default, calc prints
       values as if they were floating point numbers.  One may change the default to print values in a number of
       modes including fractions, integers and exponentials.

       A  number  of  stdio-like  file  I/O  operations are provided.  One may open, read, write, seek and close
       files.  Filenames are subject to `` '' expansion to home directories in a way similar to that of the Korn
       or C-Shell.

       For example:

          ~/.calcrc
          ~chongo/lib/fft_multiply.cal

       For more information use the following calc command:

          help file

       CALC LANGUAGE

       The  calc  language  is a C-like language.  The language includes commands such as variable declarations,
       expressions, tests, labels, loops, file operations, function calls.  These commands are very  similar  to
       their counterparts in C.

       The language also include a number of commands particular to calc itself.  These include commands such as
       function definition, help, reading  in  resource  files,  dump  files  to  a  file,  error  notification,
       configuration control and status.

       For more information use the following calc command:

          help command
          help statement
          help expression
          help operator
          help config

FILES


       /usr/bin/calc
            calc binary

       /usr/share/doc/apcalc/examples/*
            calc shell scripts

       /usr/lib/*.cal
            calc standard resource files

       /usr/lib/help/*
            help files

       /usr/lib/bindings
            non-GNU-readline command line editor bindings

       /usr/include/calc/*.h
            include files for C interface use

       /usr/lib/libcalc.a
            calc binary link library

       /usr/lib/libcustcalc.a
            custom binary link library

       /usr/share/calc/custom/*.cal
            custom resource files

       /usr/share/calc/custhelp/*
            custom help files

ENVIRONMENT


       CALCPATH
            A  :-separated list of directories used to search for calc resource filenames that do not begin with
            /, ./ or ~.

            Default value: .:./cal:~/.cal:/usr/local/share/calc:/usr/share/calc:/usr/share/calc/custom

       CALCRC
            On startup (unless -h or -q was given on the command line),  calc  searches  for  files  along  this
            :-separated environment variable.

            Default value: /usr/share/calc/startup:/usr/local/share/calc/startup:~/.calcrc:./.calcinit

       CALCBINDINGS
            On  startup  (unless  -h  or  -q  was  given  on the command line, or -m disallows opening files for
            reading), calc reads key bindings from the filename specified by this environment variable.  The key
            binding file is searched for along the $CALCPATH list of directories.

            Default value: binding

            This  variable  is  not  used  if  calc  was  compiled with GNU-readline support.  In that case, the
            standard readline mechanisms (see readline(3)) are used.

CREDIT


       The main chunk of calc was written by David I. Bell.

       The calc primary mirror, calc mailing list and calc bug report processing is  performed  by  Landon  Curt
       Noll.

       Landon  Curt  Noll  maintains  the master reference source, performs release control functions as well as
       other calc maintenance functions.

       Thanks for suggestions and encouragement from Peter Miller, Neil Justusson, and Landon Noll.

       Thanks to Stephen Rothwell for writing the original version of hist.c which is used  to  do  the  command
       line editing.

       Thanks  to  Ernest  W.  Bowen for supplying many improvements in accuracy and generality for some numeric
       functions.  Much of this was in terms of actual code which I gratefully accepted.  Ernest  also  supplied
       the original text for many of the help files.

       Portions  of this program are derived from an earlier set of public domain arbitrarily precision routines
       which was posted to the net around 1984.  By now, there is almost no recognizable  code  left  from  that
       original source.

COPYING / CALC GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE


       Calc  is  open  software, and is covered under version 2.1 of the GNU Lesser General Public License.  You
       are welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.  The calc commands:

            help copyright
            help copying
            help copying-lgpl

       should display the contents of the COPYING and COPYING-LGPL files.  Those files contain information about
       the  calc's  GNU  Lesser  General  Public  License,  and in particular the conditions under which you are
       allowed to change it and/or distribute copies of it.

       You should have received a copy of the version 2.1 of the GNU Lesser General Public License.  If  you  do
       not have these files, write to:

            Free Software Foundation, Inc.
            51 Franklin Street
            Fifth Floor
            Boston, MA  02110-1301
            USA

       Calc is copyrighted in several different ways.  These ways include:

            Copyright (C) year  David I. Bell
            Copyright (C) year  David I. Bell and Landon Curt Noll
            Copyright (C) year  David I. Bell and Ernest Bowen
            Copyright (C) year  David I. Bell, Landon Curt Noll and Ernest Bowen
            Copyright (C) year  Landon Curt Noll
            Copyright (C) year  Ernest Bowen and Landon Curt Noll
            Copyright (C) year  Ernest Bowen

       This man page is:

            Copyright (C) 1999  Landon Curt Noll

       and is covered under version 2.1 GNU Lesser General Public License.

CALC MAILING LIST / CALC UPDATES / ENHANCEMENTS


       To  contribute comments, suggestions, enhancements and interesting calc resource files, and shell scripts
       please join the calc-tester low volume moderated calc mailing list.

       To the calc-tester mailing list, visit the following URL:

            https://www.listbox.com/subscribe/?list_id=239342

       To help determine you are a human and not just a spam bot, you will be required to provide the  following
       additional information:

            Your Name

            Calc Version
               For example, the current version is: 2.12.5.0

            Operating System
               If you don't know your operating system, enter: unknown

            The date 7 days ago
               Consult a calendar :-)

       If  you  need  a  human to help you with your mailing list subscription, or if you have problems with the
       above procedure, please send EMail to our special address:

            calc-tester-maillist-help at asthe dot com

            NOTE: Remove spaces and replace 'at' with @, 'dot' with .

            NOTE: Yes, the EMail address uses 'asthe',
                  while the web site uses 'isthe'.

       To be sure we see your EMail asking for  help  with  your  mailing  list  subscription,  please  use  the
       following phase in your EMail Subject line your subject must contain the words:

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       You may have additional words in your subject line.

BUG REPORTS / BUG FIXES


       Send bug reports and bug fixes to:

            calc-bug-report at asthe dot com

            NOTE: Remove spaces and replace 'at' with @, 'dot' with .

            NOTE: Yes, the EMail address uses 'asthe',
                  while the web site uses 'isthe'.

       Your subject must contain the words:

            calc bug report

       You may have additional words in your subject line.
            However,  you  may  find  it  more  helpful to simply subscribe to the calc-tester mailing list (see
            above) and then to send your report to that mailing list as a wider set calc testers may be able  to
            help you.

            See the BUGS source file or use the calc command:

                 help bugs

            for more information about bug reporting.

CALC WEB SITE


       Landon Noll maintains the calc web site is located at:

            www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/comp/calc/

       Share and Enjoy! :-)