Re:Can an email go 500 miles in 2025?
by bqmjjx0kac on Tuesday July 08, 2025 @10:59AM
(#44500625)
I always want to reach for `units`, but I'm perennially baffled by the output! What's up with the * and /?
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I 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.If you only need the first line you can invoke units with --terse.
$ units --terse 2.4kWh megajoules
8.64The * 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`
Re:Can an email go 500 miles in 2025?
by bqmjjx0kac on Tuesday July 08, 2025 @11:34AM
(#44500998)
Oh, 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.
Re:Can an email go 500 miles in 2025?
by spacepotato on Tuesday July 08, 2025 @11:42AM
(#44501074)
If 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
Re:Can an email go 500 miles in 2025?
by jagged-chisel on Tuesday July 08, 2025 @11:36AM
(#44501018)
* multiply
/ divide
Re:Can an email go 500 miles in 2025?
by bqmjjx0kac on Tuesday July 08, 2025 @06:47PM
(#44504720)
I am familiar.
the * 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