man(1) Manual page archive


     COLUMN(1)                                               COLUMN(1)

     NAME
          col, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, mc, fold, expand - column alignment

     SYNOPSIS
          col [ -bfx ]

          2 [ file ]

          mc [ - ] [ -N ] [ -t ] [ file ... ]

          fold [ -N ] [ file ... ]

          expand [ -stops ] [ file ... ]

     DESCRIPTION
          These programs rearrange files for appearance's sake.  All
          read the standard input and write the standard output.  Some
          optionally read from files instead.

          Col overlays lines to expunge reverse line feeds (ESC-7) and
          half line feeds (ESC-9 and ESC-8) as produced by nroff for
          .2C in ms(6) and for tbl(1). It normally emits only full
          line feeds; option -f (fine) allows half line feeds too.
          Option -b removes backspaces, printing just one of each pile
          of overstruck characters.  Col normally converts white space
          to tabs; option -x overrides this feature.  Other escaped
          characters and non-printing characters, except for SO and
          SI, are ignored.

          Col should not be used for printing on an HP ThinkJet
          printer with think (thinkblt(9.1)), which performs the col
          function itself.

          Commands 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 convert their input to 2-, 3-, 4-,
          5-, or 6-column form, with consecutive input lines arranged
          across each row.

          Fold inserts newlines after each N characters (default n=80,
          or mux(9.1) window size) of long lines.

          Mc splits the input into as many columns as will fit in N
          print positions (default N=80). Under option - each input
          line ending in a colon `:' is printed separately (see exam-
          ple).  On output, multiple spaces are converted to tabs;
          this is suppressed by option -t.

          Expand replaces tabs by spaces.  The optional stops argument
          is a comma-separated list of tab stops, counted from 0;
          default is every 8 columns.

     COLUMN(1)                                               COLUMN(1)

     EXAMPLES
          tbl file | nroff -ms | col | hp
               Format some tables for printing on typewriters; use col
               to remove reverse line feeds and hp (see ul(1)) to do
               underlining, etc., on an HP terminal.

          ls directory1 directory2 | mc -
               List files in multiple columns, separated by directory.

     SEE ALSO
          pr(1)

     BUGS
          Col can't back up more than 128 lines or handle more than
          800 characters per line, and understands `VT' (013) as
          reverse line feed.