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     COL(1)                                                     COL(1)

     NAME
          col - filter reverse line feeds

     SYNOPSIS
          col [-bfx]

     DESCRIPTION
          Col reads the standard input and writes the standard output.
          It performs the line overlays implied by reverse line feeds
          (ESC-7 in ASCII) and by forward and reverse half line feeds
          (ESC-9 and ESC-8).  Col is particularly useful for filtering
          multicolumn output made with the `.rt' command of nroff and
          output resulting from use of the tbl(1) preprocessor.

          Although col accepts half line motions in its input, it nor-
          mally does not emit them on output.  Instead, text that
          would appear between lines is moved to the next lower full
          line boundary.  This treatment can be suppressed by the -f
          (fine) option; in this case the output from col may contain
          forward half line feeds (ESC-9), but will still never con-
          tain either kind of reverse line motion.

          If the -b option is given, col assumes that the output
          device in use is not capable of backspacing.  In this case,
          if several characters are to appear in the same place, only
          the last one read will be taken.

          The control characters SO (ASCII code 017), and SI (016) are
          assumed to start and end text in an alternate character set.
          The character set (primary or alternate) associated with
          each printing character read is remembered; on output, SO
          and SI characters are generated where necessary to maintain
          the correct treatment of each character.

          Col normally converts white space to tabs to shorten print-
          ing time.  If the -x option is given, this conversion is
          suppressed.

          All control characters are removed from the input except
          space, backspace, tab, return, newline, ESC (033) followed
          by one of 789, SI, SO, and VT (013).  This last character is
          an alternate form of full reverse line feed, for compatibil-
          ity with some other hardware conventions.  All other non-
          printing characters are ignored.

     SEE ALSO
          troff(1), tbl(1), greek(1)

     BUGS
          Can't back up more than 128 lines.

     COL(1)                                                     COL(1)

          No more than 800 characters, including backspaces, on a
          line.