.TH "SLOANE" "1" "March 18, 2014" "Sloane User Manual" "Version 1.7"
.SH NAME
.PP
sloane \- a command line interface to Sloane\[aq]s On\-Line Encyclopedia
of Integer Sequences <http://oeis.org>
.SH SYNOPSIS
.PP
sloane [\f[I]options\f[]] \f[I]search\-terms\f[]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
The sloane command searches Sloane\[aq]s On\-Line Encyclopedia of
Integer Sequences (OEIS).
The search terms are typically the leading term of a sequence.
For example,
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
sloane\ 1,1,2,5,15,52,203,877,4140
\f[]
.fi
.PP
returns entry A000110 (Bell numbers), and four more entries.
One can also search by sequence id (A\-number), or even search for
arbitrary words.
See the \f[B]EXAMPLES\f[] section.
.PP
If no search terms are specified the standard input is read
line\-by\-line.
In this mode the search is done locally against a downloaded list of
known sequences.
If the sequence is in the OEIS, then it is returned to the standard
output; if not, it is ignored.
This way sloane can quickly filter out the sequences from the input that
are in the OEIS.
Assuming that \f[I]FILE\f[] contains one sequence per line,
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
sloane\ <FILE
\f[]
.fi
.PP
returns the subset of the sequences in \f[I]FILE\f[] that are in the
OEIS.
To also lookup the names of those sequences in the OEIS one could, for
instance, run
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
sloane\ <FILE\ |\ xargs\ \-L1\ \-\-verbose\ sloane
\f[]
.fi
.PP
Sloane crops long lines to fit the widths of the terminal.
If this is unwanted, pipe the output through cat.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-k \-\-keys=KEYS
Keys of fields to print (default: SN)
.RS
.RE
.TP
.B \-a \-\-all
Print all fields
.RS
.RE
.TP
.B \-u \-\-url
Print urls of found entries (but nothing else)
.RS
.RE
.TP
.B \-\-update
Update the local sequence cache
.RS
.RE
.TP
.B \-n \-\-limit=INT
Fetch at most this many entries (default: 5)
.RS
.RE
.TP
.B \-? \-\-help
Display a short help message
.RS
.RE
.TP
.B \-V \-\-version
Print version information
.RS
.RE
.SH EXAMPLES
.PP
The most common search is for entries matching a sequence of consecutive
terms:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
sloane\ 1,3,19,183,2371,38703
\f[]
.fi
.PP
At the time of writing this particular query would return
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
S\ A006531\ 1,1,3,19,183,2371,38703,763099,17648823,468603091,14050842303,
N\ A006531\ Semiorders\ on\ n\ elements.
\f[]
.fi
.PP
As this illustrates, the default is to return just the sequence (S) and
the name (N) fields.
To override the default one can use the keys option.
For instance, the following search shows the sequence, name, comments,
and formula fields of the sequence whose A\-number is A006531:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
sloane\ \-\-keys=SNCF\ id:A006531
\f[]
.fi
.PP
The next example returns at most 3 results of a free text search:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
sloane\ \-n3\ "(2+2)\-free\ posets"
\f[]
.fi
.PP
To view the full entries of these 3 results in a browser (e.g., firefox)
one can use the url option:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
firefox\ `sloane\ \-\-url\ \-n3\ "(2+2)\-free\ posets"`
\f[]
.fi
.PP
In the final example we use sloane to use the local cache to filter out
sequences from the standard input that are in the OEIS:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
sloane\ <<END
1,2,3,6,11,23,47,106,235\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ Comma\ separated\ integers
1\ 2\ 444\ 90\ 120\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ Space\ separated\ integers
\[aq](3\ 9\ 27\ 88\ 123)\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ S\-expression
[2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31,37]\ \ #\ Haskell\ list
[1;\ 1;\ 2;\ 3;\ 5;\ 8;\ 13;\ 21]\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ O\[aq]Caml\ list
{1,\ \-1,\ 2,\ \-6,\ 24,\ \-120,\ 720}\ \ \ \ \ \ #\ Mathematica\ list
END
\f[]
.fi
.PP
The \[aq]#\[aq] character and any text after it is ignored by sloane.
Note also that sloane is quite liberal in the formatting of sequences it
accepts.
.SH KEYS
.PP
These are the keys used by OEIS <http://oeis.org/eishelp2.html>.
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
I\ \ ID\ number

S\ \ 1st\ line\ of\ unsigned\ sequence
T\ \ 2nd\ line\ of\ unsigned\ sequence
U\ \ 3rd\ line\ of\ unsigned\ sequence

V\ \ 1st\ line\ of\ signed\ sequence
W\ \ 2nd\ line\ of\ signed\ sequence
X\ \ 3rd\ line\ of\ signed\ sequence

N\ \ Name
C\ \ Comments
D\ \ References
H\ \ Links
F\ \ Formula
e\ \ Examples

p\ \ Maple\ program
t\ \ Mathematica\ program
o\ \ Program\ in\ other\ language

Y\ \ Cross\-references
K\ \ Keywords
O\ \ Offset
A\ \ Author
E\ \ Extensions\ and\ errors
\f[]
.fi
.SH NOTES
.PP
Please use this program with moderation as not to overburden the
OEIS\-server; see OEIS\[aq] policy on searching the database:
<http://oeis.org/wiki/Welcome#Policy_on_Searching_the_Database>.
.SH SEE ALSO
.PP
The sloane source code may be downloaded from
<https://github.com/akc/sloane>.
.SH AUTHOR
.PP
Anders Claesson <http://akc.is>