units(1)

DESCRIPTION

units converts quantities expressed in various standard scales to their equivalents in other scales. It works interactively as follows:

The system responds with two factors; one used if multiplying (preceded by *), the other if dividing (preceded by /):

After providing the conversion factors, units prompts for the next set of values. To terminate units, press the interrupt character as defined for your login.

A quantity is specified as a multiplicative combination of units optionally preceded by a numeric multiplier. Powers are indicated by suffixed positive integers, and division by the usual sign:

The system responds with:

units only does multiplicative scale changes; thus it can convert Kelvin to Rankine, but not Celsius to Fahrenheit. Most familiar units, abbreviations, and metric prefixes are recognized, together with a generous leavening of exotica and a few constants of nature including:

Units must be provided in lowercase only. pound is not recognized as a unit of mass; lb is. Compound names are run together, (e.g., lightyear). British units that differ from their U.S. counterparts are prefixed thus: brgallon. For a complete list of units, examine the file:

An alternate unit database file can be specified for use with the - file option. units looks in this file rather than the default /usr/share/lib/unittab for the table of conversions. This must be in the same format as /usr/share/lib/unittab. This is useful in defining your own units and conversions.

WARNINGS

The monetary exchange rates are out of date.

FILES

/usr/share/lib/unittab