UNITS(1) UNITS(1)
NAME
units - conversion program
SYNOPSIS
units [ -v ] [ file ]
DESCRIPTION
Units converts quantities expressed in various standard
scales to their equivalents in other scales. It works
interactively in this fashion:
you have: inch
you want: cm
* 2.54
/ 0.393701
A quantity is specified as a multiplicative combination of
units and floating point numbers. Operators have the fol-
lowing precedence:
+ - add and subtract
* / × ÷ multiply and divide
catenation multiply
² ³ ^ exponentiation
| divide
( ... ) grouping
Most familiar units, abbreviations, and metric prefixes are
recognized, together with a generous leavening of exotica
and a few constants of nature including:
pi,π 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
The `pound' is a unit of mass. Compound names are run
together, e.g. `lightyear'. British units that differ from
their US counterparts are prefixed thus: `brgallon'. Cur-
rency is denoted `belgiumfranc', `britainpound', etc.
The complete list of units can be found in /lib/units. A
file argument to units specifies a file to be used instead
of /lib/units. The -v flag causes units to print its entire
database.
Page 1 Plan 9 (printed 11/15/25)
UNITS(1) UNITS(1)
EXAMPLE
you have: 15 pounds force/in²
you want: atm
* 1.02069
/ .97973
FILES
/lib/units
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/units.y
BUGS
Since units does only multiplicative scale changes, it can
convert Kelvin to Rankine but not Centigrade to Fahrenheit.
Currency conversions are only as accurate as the last time
someone updated the database.
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 11/15/25)