bc or short for basic calculator is almost 50 years old calculator scripting language which I stumble upon as a prerequisite when testing AWS S3 upload speed. Let’s cover the installation basics on the most popular OS platforms.
Prerequisites
- Shell environment
- sudo privileges
Example code
bc -l <<< "8*7/3"
18.66666666666666666666
Install bc on Linux
Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install -y bc
RHEL/CentOS
sudo yum install -y bc
Fedora 22+
sudo dnf install -y bc
Install bc on macOS
Open Terminal and install bc via Homebrew.
brew install bc
Install bc on Windows
Option 1. There are pre-build binaries of GNU bc usually served from FTP server via HTTPS, HTTP, and FTP.
Option 2. Install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and install bc by running the Linux command based on the fitting OS distribution.
Conclusion
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