HP-UX Reference (11i v1 05/09) - 1 User Commands N-Z (vol 2)

u
units(1) units(1)
NAME
units - conversion program
SYNOPSIS
units [- file]
DESCRIPTION
units converts quantities expressed in various standard scales to their equivalents in other scales. It
works interactively as follows:
System Prompt User Response
You have: inch
You want: cm
The system responds with two factors; one used if multiplying (preceded by
*), the other if dividing (pre-
ceded by
/):
* 2.540000e+00
/ 3.937008e-01
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:
System Prompt User Response
You have: 15 lbs force/in2
You want: atm
The system responds with:
* 1.020689e+00
/ 9.797299e-01
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 gen-
erous leavening of exotica and a few constants of nature including:
pi ratio of circumference to diameter
c speed of light
e charge on an electron
g acceleration of gravity
force same as g,
mole Avogadro’s number,
water pressure head per unit height of water,
au astronomical unit.
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:
/usr/share/lib/unittab
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 conver-
sions.
WARNINGS
The monetary exchange rates are out of date.
FILES
/usr/share/lib/unittab
Section 11016 Hewlett-Packard Company 1 HP-UX 11i Version 1: September 2005