How to display a random line from a text file?
Solution 1:
You can use shuf utility to print random lines from file
$ shuf -n 1 filename
-n : number of lines to print
Examples:
$ shuf -n 1 /etc/passwd
git:x:998:998:git daemon user:/:/bin/bash
$ shuf -n 2 /etc/passwd
avahi:x:84:84:avahi:/:/bin/false
daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/bin/false
Solution 2:
You can also use sort command to get random line from the file.
sort -R filename | head -n1