How can I randomize the lines in a file using standard tools on Red Hat Linux?

Question

How can I randomize the lines in a file using standard tools on Red Hat Linux?

I don\'t have the shuf command, so I am looking for something like a

Answer 1

A one-liner for python:

python -c "import random, sys; lines = open(sys.argv[1]).readlines(); random.shuffle(lines); print ''.join(lines)," myFile

And for printing just a single random line:

python -c "import random, sys; print random.choice(open(sys.argv[1]).readlines())," myFile

But see this post for the drawbacks of python's random.shuffle(). It won't work well with many (more than 2080) elements.