SEQ(1)

📦
version 9.10 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 SEQ(1) — bestie's guide to counting real pretty 💖

okay so. seq. it's giving "print a sequence of numbers" and honestly? it ATE. this is the manual page for it, and i'm gonna walk you through every single crumb of it, no notes, no skips. 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

here's how you call it, three ways, pick ur fighter:

seq [OPTION]... LAST
seq [OPTION]... FIRST LAST
seq [OPTION]... FIRST INCREMENT LAST

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

the whole vibe: it prints numbers from FIRST to LAST, stepping by INCREMENT. that's it, that's the girl. 💅

lowkey important house rule before we get into the flags: if an argument is required for a long option, it's required for the short option too. mandatory is mandatory bestie, no sneaking around it. 🎀

🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

  • -f, --format=FORMAT — use a printf style floating-point FORMAT. yes like the printf you already know and love. make it cute. ✨
  • -s, --separator=STRING — use STRING to separate each number. the default is \n, which is why it normally stacks all nice down your terminal like a lil tower. 🌈
  • -w, --equal-width — equalize width by padding with leading zeroes. everyone gets the same width, no one is jealous. 👑
  • --help — display this help and exit. hand holding behavior fr. 🤝
  • --version — output version information and exit. identity check. 💅

🧚 the rules of the count (aka the important lore) 🧚

  • if FIRST or INCREMENT is omitted, it defaults to 1.
  • and this is the part people always get wrong so listen up: an omitted INCREMENT defaults to 1 even when LAST is smaller than FIRST. yes really. that's just how she is. 😭
  • the sequence of numbers ends when the sum of the current number and INCREMENT would become greater than LAST. so we don't overshoot, we just stop. periodt. ✋
  • FIRST, INCREMENT, and LAST are interpreted as floating point values. decimals welcome, they're beautiful. 🍓
  • INCREMENT is usually positive if FIRST is smaller than LAST, and usually negative if FIRST is greater than LAST. going down is valid, we support the descent. ⬇️
  • INCREMENT must not be 0. like. at all. zero increment is a crime and also an infinite loop adjacent situation, don't do it. ⚠️
  • none of FIRST, INCREMENT and LAST may be NaN. not a single one. 🚫
  • FORMAT must be suitable for printing one argument of type double. it defaults to %.PRECf if FIRST, INCREMENT, and LAST are all fixed point decimal numbers with maximum precision PREC, and to %g otherwise.
i'm not joking about the 0 increment or the NaN thing, those are hard nos, not vibes. 🙈

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Ulrich Drepper.

💀 REPORTING BUGS 💀

found a bug? pls don't just scream into the void, there's a whole process:

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

  • Packaged by Ubuntu (9.10-1ubuntu2)
  • Copyright © 2026 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.
no warranty bestie, you break it you bought it. 💜

okay that's the whole page, every flag, every default, every warning, preserved in full, iconic, no cap. this was GNU coreutils 9.10, dated August 2026, and that's the SEQ(1) manual page, mwah, kisses, go count something beautiful 💖✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from