xenial (6) rolldice.6.gz

Provided by: rolldice_1.14-2_amd64 bug

NAME

       rolldice - rolls virtual dice

SYNOPSIS

       rolldice [ options ] [dice_string [dice_string ...]]

DESCRIPTION

       rolldice rolls virtual dice.  The dice strings passed on the command line contain information on the dice
       to roll in a format comparable to the format used in most role playing games.

       If no dice strings are provided as command line arguments, rolldice uses stdin as input.

OPTIONS

              -h,--help
                     returns the usage of diceroll

              -v,--version
                     returns the version of diceroll

              -r,--random
                     uses /dev/random for random number generating

              -u,--urandom
                     uses /dev/urandom for random number generating (default)

              -s,--separate
                     prints out the result of each individual die separately, as  well  as  the  operations  and
                     totals

DICE STRING FORMAT

       The dice string uses the following format:

              {#x}{#}d[#|%]{*#}{+/-#}{s#}

       The  dice  string doesn't have to be in the exact format outlined above, but this is the order I use.  It
       will try to parse any different string containing the same sections in the best  way  it  can,  and  will
       throw out anything that isn't one of the sections below.

              {#}d[#|%]
                     The  first  number  is  the  number of dice to roll, and the second number is the number of
                     sides the dice have.  The numbers rolled on each die are then added up  and  given  as  the
                     result.   Hence  3d6  means  "roll  three  six-sided dice, add them together and return the
                     result".  If the first number is left out, then the number of dice defaults to 1.   If  the
                     second  number is not a number, but a percentage sign (%), then the number of sides becomes
                     100 (for a percentage roll).  If this is not included in the dice string, then the  default
                     is 1d6.

              {#x}   This  number  describes how many times to roll.  For example, if you want to roll 3 6-sided
                     dice 6 times, you use the dice string 6x3d6.  This returns six  numbers,  corresponding  to
                     the six different rolls.

              {*#}   This  number describes how many times to multiply the result of each roll.  3d6*100 returns
                     a number in the range of 300-1800, because 3-18 is the range for 3d6 and the result is then
                     multipled by 100.

              {+/-#} This  number  is  the  modifier to be added or subtracted, depending on the sign, from each
                     roll.  1d4+1 results in a range from 2-5 (1-4 for the die, plus 1).  This step  is  handled
                     *after* the multiplication modifier.

              {s#}   This  number  describes  how many lowest dice rolls to drop.  This step is handled *before*
                     the multiplication modifier.

       in the order show above.  For an extreme example, "3x4d6*5+1s2" would roll four six-sided dice, drop  the
       lowest  two,  multiply the result by 5, add 1 to that, and repeat the process two more times, for a total
       of three results.

DIAGNOSTICS

       The following error messages may appear on STDERR:

       Requested * is too large
              Memory could not be allocated while parsing the string passed to the rolldice program
       Problems with the malformed dice string
              The dice string contains a syntax error (see upper section DICE STRING FORMAT)
       Unknown option
              An unknown command-line option was provided

       The exit values returned by rolldice follow the BSD convention.

AUTHOR

       Stevie Strickland <sstrickl@ccs.neu.edu>

VERSION

       1.14 - 18 Dec 2012