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.\" $OpenBSD: column.1,v 1.18 2016/10/24 13:53:05 schwarze Exp $
.\" $NetBSD: column.1,v 1.3 1995/03/26 09:08:28 glass Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993
.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" 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. 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.
.\"
.\" @(#)column.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: October 24 2016 $
.Dt COLUMN 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm column
.Nd columnate lists
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm column
.Op Fl tx
.Op Fl c Ar columns
.Op Fl s Ar sep
.Op Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility formats its input into multiple columns.
Each input line provides the text for one output cell.
Columns are filled before rows.
.Pp
The column width is determined by the longest input line rounded
up to the nearest tabstop; tabstops are assumed to be at multiples
of eight.
Output uses tab characters to advance to the next column.
The number of columns is chosen to fill the terminal width.
.Pp
Input is taken from
.Ar file
operands or, by default, from the standard input.
Empty lines and lines containing only whitespace are ignored.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl c Ar columns
Output is formatted for a display
.Ar columns
wide.
.It Fl s Ar sep
Specify a set of characters to delimit columns for the
.Fl t
option.
It defaults to space and tab.
.It Fl t
Table mode.
Each input line provides the text for one output row.
It is split into cells using the
.Fl s
option.
Leading, trailing, and multiple adjacent delimiters are ignored.
Each column is as wide as the widest cell in it.
Columns are separated by two spaces.
.It Fl x
Fill rows before filling columns.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width LC_CTYPE
.It Ev COLUMNS
If set to a positive integer,
output is formatted to the given width in display columns.
Otherwise,
.Nm
defaults to the terminal width, or 80 columns if the output is not a terminal.
.It Ev LC_CTYPE
The character encoding
.Xr locale 1 .
It decides which byte sequences form characters, what their display
width is, and which characters are whitespace.
If unset or set to
.Qq C ,
.Qq POSIX ,
or an unsupported value, each byte except the tab is treated as a
character of display width 1.
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std column
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr colrm 1 ,
.Xr fmt 1 ,
.Xr paste 1 ,
.Xr rs 1
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.3 Reno .
|
