<s>
On	O
Unix-like	B-Operating_System
computer	O
systems	O
,	O
seq	B-Device
is	O
a	O
utility	O
for	O
generating	O
a	O
sequence	O
of	O
numbers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
seq	B-Device
first	O
appeared	O
on	O
8th	O
edition	O
Research	B-Operating_System
Unix	I-Operating_System
in	O
1985	O
,	O
and	O
was	O
not	O
adopted	O
by	O
other	O
variants	O
of	O
Unix	B-Application
(	O
such	O
as	O
commercial	O
Unixes	B-Application
or	O
BSD	B-Operating_System
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Nevertheless	O
,	O
it	O
was	O
later	O
adopted	O
in	O
Plan	B-Operating_System
9	I-Operating_System
from	I-Operating_System
Bell	I-Operating_System
Labs	I-Operating_System
,	O
and	O
from	O
there	O
was	O
copied	O
into	O
some	O
modern	O
BSD	B-Operating_System
descendants	O
like	O
FreeBSD	B-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
Another	O
version	O
of	O
seq	B-Device
was	O
written	O
in	O
1994	O
by	O
Ulrich	O
Drepper	O
,	O
for	O
GNU	B-Operating_System
,	O
and	O
is	O
now	O
available	O
on	O
all	O
Linux	B-Application
distributions	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
GNU	B-Application
Core	I-Application
Utilities	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
command	B-Application
is	O
available	O
as	O
a	O
separate	O
package	O
for	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Windows	I-Application
as	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
UnxUtils	B-Application
collection	O
of	O
native	B-Language
Win32	B-Library
ports	O
of	O
common	O
GNU	B-Operating_System
Unix-like	B-Operating_System
utilities	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
its	O
most	O
basic	O
use	O
case	O
,	O
seq	B-Device
N	O
prints	O
out	O
all	O
the	O
integers	O
from	O
1	O
to	O
N	O
in	O
sequence	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
was	O
convenient	O
as	O
the	O
Unix	B-Application
shell	O
at	O
the	O
time	O
,	O
the	B-Device
Bourne	I-Device
shell	I-Device
had	O
no	O
primitives	O
for	O
iterating	O
over	O
numbers	O
,	O
and	O
its	O
"	O
for	O
"	O
command	B-Application
could	O
only	O
iterate	O
over	O
a	O
list	O
of	O
words	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
seq	B-Device
was	O
therefore	O
used	O
to	O
generate	O
such	O
a	O
list	O
,	O
as	O
in	O
this	O
example	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
seq	B-Device
had	O
additional	O
options	O
for	O
controlling	O
the	O
start	O
(	O
not	O
just	O
end	O
)	O
of	O
the	O
numeric	B-Algorithm
sequence	O
,	O
its	O
increment	O
(	O
a	O
floating	B-Algorithm
point	I-Algorithm
number	I-Algorithm
)	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
formatting	O
of	O
the	O
number	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GNU	B-Operating_System
seq	B-Device
changed	O
the	O
name	O
and	O
meaning	O
of	O
the	O
format	O
option	O
(	O
from	O
-p	O
to	O
-f	O
)	O
and	O
added	O
an	O
option	O
to	O
control	O
the	O
separator	O
between	O
the	O
numbers	O
(	O
-s	O
,	O
defaults	O
to	O
a	O
newline	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
other	O
alternatives	O
available	O
(	O
e.g.	O
,	O
expr	B-Application
)	O
,	O
and	O
with	O
more	O
recent	O
shells	O
adding	O
builtin	O
numeric	B-Algorithm
iteration	O
,	O
seq	B-Device
is	O
less	O
commonly	O
used	O
today	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
modern	O
Linux	B-Application
shell	O
,	O
bash	B-Operating_System
,	O
the	O
above	O
example	O
can	O
be	O
alternatively	O
written	O
as	O
:	O
</s>
