GNU Units Skill

Use GNU units to perform unit conversions and calculations via the command line. Can be installed using brew and apt under "units".

Usage

Use the bash tool to run the units command. Use the -t (terse) flag to get just the numeric result.

units -t 'from-unit' 'to-unit'

Examples

Basic Conversion:

units -t '10 kg' 'lbs'
# Output: 22.046226

Compound Units:

units -t '60 miles/hour' 'm/s'
# Output: 26.8224

Temperature (Non-linear):

Temperature requires specific syntax: tempF(x), tempC(x), tempK(x).

units -t 'tempF(98.6)' 'tempC'
# Output: 37

Time:

units -t '2 weeks' 'seconds'

Rounding Output:

To round to specific decimal places (e.g. 3 places), use -o "%.3f":

units -t -o "%.3f" '10 kg' 'lbs'
# Output: 22.046

Definition Lookup:

To see what a unit definition is (without converting), omit the second argument (without -t is more verbose/useful for definitions):

units '1 acre'

Notes

• Currency: units supports currency (USD, EUR, etc.), but exchange rates may be out of date as they are static in the definitions file.
• Safety: Always quote your units to prevent shell expansion issues (e.g. units -t '1/2 inch' 'mm').