PRIMES(1)

📦 version 1.053, in alpine 3.24

💜 PRIMES(1) — like, the primes girlie 💅

okay so bestie, this is a page from the User Contributed Perl Documentation section of your man pages, and it's about a lil utility literally called primes 🎀 yes, that kind of primes. prime numbers. the iconic ones. let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

primes — generate primes, no cap 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

primes [start [stop]]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so here's the vibe 💖: the primes utility prints out primes in ascending order — one per line, bestie, one per line — starting at or above start and continuing until, but not including, stop. yes, "until but not including", she's exclusive at the top end, it's giving boundaries 💅

the rules for the numbers, and you gotta respect the rules:

  • start must be at least 0 and not greater than stop
  • stop must not be greater than 4294967295 (that's the ceiling, don't test her 😭)
  • the default value of stop is 4294967295 — so if you don't say anything, she just keeps going to the big number 🔥

and here's the cute part 🫶: when the primes utility is invoked with no arguments, values are read from standard input. like, she'll just sit there and listen to you. also, start and stop may be preceded by a single + character — one. single. plus. singular plus energy ✨

💀 BUGS 💀

primes has no known bugs. flawless. unbothered. thriving 🌈

the algorithm, though? non-optimal. 😭 like it works, she's doing her best, but it's not it algorithmically. no notes, moving on 🙈

👑 AUTHOR 👑

the Perl implementation of factor was originally written by Jonathan Feinberg, jdf@pobox.com, and modified by Benjamin Tilly, ben.tilly@alumni.dartmouth.edu. shoutout to the founders, periodt 🫡💖

this program is copyright (c) Jonathan Feinberg and Benjamin Tilly (1999).

this program is free and open software 🕊️ you may use, modify, distribute, and sell this program (and any modified variants) in any way you wish — provided you do not restrict others from doing the same. share the love, don't gatekeep, that's the whole deal 💜✨

ngl bestie, if you're feeding her numbers with a leading +, just remember it's a single + character. one. don't be extra 💅

and that's the whole page, babes 🦋 signin' off from perl v5.42.2, dated 2026-02-15 — mwah, go generate some primes 💋🌸

📦 where this page comes from