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bc — An arbitrary precision calculator language. See also: `dc`. More information: <https://keith.github.

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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macos

Problem

How to use the bc command: An arbitrary precision calculator language. See also: dc. More information: <https://keith.github.io/xcode-man-pages/bc.1.html>.

Solution

bc — An arbitrary precision calculator language. See also: dc. More information: <https://keith.github.io/xcode-man-pages/bc.1.html>.

Start an interactive session:

bc

Start an interactive session with the standard math library enabled:

bc --mathlib

Calculate an expression:

bc --expression '{{5 / 3}}'

Execute a script:

bc {{path/to/script.bc}}

Calculate an expression with the specified scale:

bc --expression '{{scale = 10; 5 / 3}}'

Calculate a sine/cosine/arctangent/natural logarithm/exponential function using mathlib:

bc --mathlib --expression '{{s|c|a|l|e}}({{1}})'

Code Snippets

Start an interactive session

bc

Start an interactive session with the standard math library enabled

bc --mathlib

Calculate an expression

bc --expression '{{5 / 3}}'

Execute a script

bc {{path/to/script.bc}}

Calculate an expression with the specified scale

bc --expression '{{scale = 10; 5 / 3}}'

Context

tldr-pages: osx/bc

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