.\" $OpenBSD: col.1,v 1.5 2000/03/23 21:10:14 aaron Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: col.1,v 1.4 1995/03/26 05:25:52 glass Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" Michael Rendell. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)col.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/29/93 .\" .Dd June 29, 1993 .Dt COL 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm col .Nd filter reverse line feeds from input .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm col .Op Fl bfx .Op Fl l Ar num .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm filters out reverse (and half-reverse) line feeds so that the output is in the correct order with only forward and half-forward line feeds, and replaces whitespace characters with tabs where possible. This can be useful in processing the output of .Xr nroff 1 and .Xr tbl 1 . .Pp .Nm reads from the standard input and writes to the standard output. .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width "-l num" .It Fl b Do not output any backspaces, printing only the last character written to each column position. .It Fl f Forward half-line feeds are permitted .Pf ( Ns Dq fine mode). Normally characters printed on a half-line boundary are printed on the following line. .It Fl x Output multiple spaces instead of tabs. .It Fl l Ar num Buffer at least .Ar num lines in memory. By default, 128 lines are buffered. .El .Pp The control sequences for carriage motion that .Nm understands and their decimal values are listed in the following table: .Pp .Bl -tag -width "carriage return" -compact .It ESC\-7 Reverse line feed (escape then 7). .It ESC\-8 Half reverse line feed (escape then 8). .It ESC\-9 Half forward line feed (escape then 9). .It backspace Moves back one column (8); ignored in the first column. .It carriage return (13) .It newline Forward line feed (10); also does carriage return. .It shift in Shift to normal character set (15). .It shift out Shift to alternate character set (14). .It space Moves forward one column (32). .It tab Moves forward to next tab stop (9). .It vertical tab Reverse line feed (11). .El .Pp All unrecognized control characters and escape sequences are discarded. .Pp .Nm keeps track of the character set as characters are read and makes sure the character set is correct when they are output. .Pp If the input attempts to back up to the last flushed line, .Nm will display a warning message. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr expand 1 , .Xr nroff 1 , .Xr tbl 1 .Sh HISTORY A .Nm command appeared in .At v6 .