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 calc(1)                                                             calc(1)




 CALC
      calc - BASIC-style expression evaluator


 SYNOPSIS
      calc [-?] [-h] [-s] [-v] [expression[,expression]]

 DESCRIPTION
      calc is an interactive or command-line expression evaluator using
      algebraic notation similar to most BASIC languages. If an expression
      is omitted on the command- line then an interactive mode is entered.
      During normal command-line use, you may wish to delimit the expression
      with single quotes (e.g. '~(2*2+$F4)/4') to avoid shell problems. The
      interactive mode has no such problems.

 USING ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES IN EXPRESSIONS
      It is possible to read and write environmental variables from within
      calc, using the syntax 'symbol=expression' to write to a variable and
      just 'symbol' to read from it. For example, 'A=2,B=3,A*B' will result
      in 6 being displayed and it makes calc extremely useful for floating
      point calculations in shell scripts of course. However, a limitation
      of UNIX is that you cannot change a parent's environment, so an
      expression like answer=`calc 'A=2,B=3,A*B'` would have to be used in a
      script. As you may have noticed, you can comma-separate expressions on
      one line too.

 OPTIONS
      There are only four options with calc:

           -?   Display a syntax usage message.

           -h   Display the interactive help, explaining about expression
                syntax.

           -s   Read from standard input, but don't enter the interactive
                mode. Useful for feeding in large files via stdin (either
                manually or in a shell script).

           -v   Display the version number of calc.

 BUGS
      Need to trap overflow errors better (e.g. try 1000^1000).

 SEE ALSO (I WOULDN'T BOTHER)
      bc(1), bs(1), dc(1)

 AUTHOR
      Richard K. Lloyd    <rkl@connect.org.uk>






                                    - 1 -         Formatted:  March 28, 2024