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I always want to reach for `units`, but I'm perennially baffled by the output! What's up with the * and /?
by bqmjjx0kac 1y ago
I always want to reach for `units`, but I'm perennially baffled by the output! What's up with the * and /?
- Arnavion 1y agoThe * value is the result of converting 10 miles to meters, as requested. The / value is the inverse of that in case you wanted that, ie 0.1 meters in miles. It's explained in `man 1 units`
- bqmjjx0kac 1y agoOh, I know it's explained in the man page. I read it every time and promptly forget because I can't internalize the choice of notation.
- jagged-chisel 1y ago* multiply / divide
- bqmjjx0kac 1y agoI am familiar.
- spacepotato 1y agoIf you find the output a bit hard to parse at times (as I do), you might want to try qalc instead, I use it all the time from the terminal to do conversions: $ qalc > 3 millilightseconds to miles 3 milliLightSeconds ≈ 558 mi + 1491 yd + 0.1692913386 ft I'm not sure if it has all the same units as `units` does, but it replaced my use of it entirely as it can do other useful operations as well
- barnas2 1y agothe * is denoting the conversion from your first unit to your second, the / denotes the other way. You have: 1 miles You want: feet * 5280 / 0.00018939394 In the above example, 1 mile is 5280 feet, and 1 foot is 0.00018939394 miles If I do 2 miles to feet, the values are doubled (or halved for the reverse conversion) You have: 2 miles You want: feet * 10560 / 9.469697e-05
- Symbiote 1y agoI usually call it non-interactively: $ units 1500DKK USD * 236.76653 / 0.00422357 in which case it's always the first line I want. (The second line is telling me 1USD is 0.00422357 of 1500DKK.) Note if you use the currency conversions, systemctl enable units-currency-update.timer is needed to keep them up-to-date.
- tmtvl 1y agoIf you only need the first line you can invoke units with --terse. $ units --terse 2.4kWh megajoules 8.64