Python-Scripting

Shuf.py - Python Implementation of GNU shuf

Consider the old-fashioned Python 2 script randline.py

I used Emacs to write a new script shuf.py in the style of randline.py but using Python 3 instead. My script implements the GNU shuf that is part of GNU Coreutils. GNU shuf is written in C, whereas you want a Python implementation so that you can more easily add new features to it.

Features

• Supports the following shuf options, with behavior identical to GNU shuf:

  • --echo (-e): Display each randomly selected line.
  • --input-range (-i): Treat a range of numbers as input lines.
  • --head-count (-n): Specify the number of output lines.
  • --repeat (-r): Output lines can be repeated.
  • --help: Display usage information.

• If --repeat (-r) is used without --head-count (-n), the program runs indefinitely, generating random lines indefinitely.

• Supports zero non-option arguments or a single non-option argument "-" (to read from standard input) or a single non-option argument specifying an input file name.

Usage

To use shuf.py, follow the format:

./shuf.py [OPTIONS] [INPUT_FILE]

Example test cases

Shuffle a list of words and display each randomly selected word:

./shuf.py -e word1 word2 word3

Treat a range of numbers as input and display a specified number of random lines:

./shuf.py -i 1-10 -n 5

Shuffle lines in a file and display them:

./shuf.py file.txt

Shuffle lines in a file, display them indefinitely, and repeat the process:

./shuf.py -r file.txt

Requirements

This script is written in Python 3 and requires a Python 3 interpreter to run.

It uses the argparse module for command-line argument parsing and the string module for string manipulation.

Notes

This is a simplified implementation and does not cover all the features of the GNU shuf command. It is designed to meet the specific requirements mentioned in the project description. Feel free to extend and modify it as needed.