The
utility is a printing and pagination filter for text files.
When multiple input files are specified, each is read, formatted,
and written to standard output.
By default, the input is separated into 66-line pages, each with
A 5-line header with the page number, date, time, and
the pathname of the file.
A 5-line trailer consisting of blank lines.
If standard output is associated with a terminal,
diagnostic messages are suppressed until the
utility has completed processing.
When multiple column output is specified,
text columns are of equal width.
By default text columns are separated by at least one
<blank>
Input lines that do not fit into a text column are truncated.
Lines are not truncated under single column output.
OPTIONS
In the following option descriptions, column, lines, offset, page, and
width are positive decimal integers and gap is a nonnegative decimal integer.
+page
Begin output at page number
page
of the formatted input.
-column
Produce output that is
columns
wide (default is 1) that is written vertically
down each column in the order in which the text
is received from the input file.
The options
-e
and
-i
are assumed.
This option should not be used with
-m
When used with
-t
the minimum number of lines is used to display the output.
(To columnify and reshape text files more generally and without additional
formatting, see the
rs(1)
utility.)
-a
Modify the effect of the
-column
option so that the columns are filled across the page in a round-robin order
(e.g., when column is 2, the first input line heads column
1, the second heads column 2, the third is the second line
in column 1, etc.).
This option requires the use of the
-column
option.
-d
Produce output that is double spaced.
An extra
<newline>
character is output following every
<newline>
found in the input.
-e
[char [gap
]
]
Expand each input
<tab>
to the next greater column
position specified by the formula
n*gap+1
where
n
is an integer > 0.
If
gap
is zero or is omitted the default is 8.
All
<tab>
characters in the input are expanded into the appropriate
number of
<space>s
If any nondigit character,
char
is specified, it is used as the input tab character.
-F
Use a
<form-feed>
character for new pages,
instead of the default behavior that uses a
sequence of
<newline>
characters.
-f
Same as
-F
but pause before beginning the first page if standard output is a terminal.
-h header
Use the string
header
to replace the
file name
in the header line.
-i
[char [gap
]
]
In output, replace multiple
<space>s
with
<tab>s
whenever two or more
adjacent
<space>s
reach column positions
gap+12*gap+1
etc.
If
gap
is zero or omitted, default
<tab>
settings at every eighth column position
is used.
If any nondigit character,
char
is specified, it is used as the output
<tab>
character.
-L locale
Use
locale
specified as argument instead of one found in environment.
Use "C" to reset locale to default.
-l lines
Override the 66 line default and reset the page length to
lines
If
lines
is not greater than the sum of both the header and trailer
depths (in lines), the
utility suppresses output of both the header and trailer, as if the
-t
option were in effect.
-m
Merge the contents of multiple files.
One line from each file specified by a file operand is
written side by side into text columns of equal fixed widths, in
terms of the number of column positions.
The number of text columns depends on the number of
file operands successfully opened.
The maximum number of files merged depends on page width and the
per process open file limit.
The options
-e
and
-i
are assumed.
-n
[char [width
]
]
Provide
width
digit line numbering.
The default for
width
if not specified, is 5.
The number occupies the first
width
column positions of each text column or each line of
-m
output.
If
char
(any nondigit character) is given, it is appended to the line number to
separate it from whatever follows.
The default for
char
is a
<tab>
Line numbers longer than
width
columns are truncated.
-o offset
Each line of output is preceded by
offset<spaces>s
If the
-o
option is not specified, the default is zero.
The space taken is in addition to the output line width.
-p
Pause before each page if the standard output is a terminal.
will write an alert character to standard error and wait for a carriage
return to be read on the terminal.
-r
Write no diagnostic reports on failure to open a file.
-s char
Separate text columns by the single character
char
instead of by the appropriate number of
<space>s
(default for
char
is the
<tab>
character).
-t
Print neither the five-line identifying
header nor the five-line trailer usually supplied for each page.
Quit printing after the last line of each file without spacing to the
end of the page.
-w width
Set the width of the line to
width
column positions for multiple text-column output only.
If the
-w
option is not specified and the
-s
option is not specified, the default width is 72.
If the
-w
option is not specified and the
-s
option is specified, the default width is 512.
file
A pathname of a file to be printed.
If no
file
operands are specified, or if a
file
operand is
`-
'
the standard input is used.
The standard input is used only if no
file
operands are specified, or if a
file
operand is
`-
'
The
-s
option does not allow the option letter to be separated from its
argument, and the options
-e
-i
and
-n
require that both arguments, if present, not be separated from the option
letter.
EXIT STATUS
The
utility exits 0 on success, and 1 if an error occurs.
DIAGNOSTICS
If
receives an interrupt while printing to a terminal, it
flushes all accumulated error messages to the screen before
terminating.
Error messages are written to standard error during the printing
process (if output is redirected) or after all successful
file printing is complete (when printing to a terminal).
