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1 .\" Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
2 .\" All rights reserved.
3 .\"
4 .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5 .\" Michael Rendell.
6 .\"
7 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
9 .\" are met:
10 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
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15 .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
16 .\" must display the following acknowledgement:
17 .\" This product includes software developed by the University of
18 .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
19 .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
20 .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
21 .\" without specific prior written permission.
22 .\"
23 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
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34 .\"
35 .\" @(#)col.1 6.8 (Berkeley) 6/17/91
36 .\"
37 .TH COL "1" "July 2014" "util-linux" "User Commands"
38 .SH NAME
39 col \- filter reverse line feeds from input
40 .SH SYNOPSIS
41 .B col
42 [options]
43 .SH DESCRIPTION
44 .B col
45 filters out reverse (and half-reverse) line feeds so the output is in the
46 correct order, with only forward and half-forward line feeds. It also replaces
47 any whitespace characters with tabs where possible. This can be useful in
48 processing the output of
49 .BR nroff (1)
50 and
51 .BR tbl (1).
52 .PP
53 .B col
54 reads from standard input and writes to standard output.
55 .SH OPTIONS
56 .TP
57 \fB\-b\fR, \fB\-\-no\-backspaces\fR
58 Do not output any backspaces, printing only the last character written to
59 each column position.
60 .TP
61 \fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-fine\fR
62 Permit half-forward line feeds.
63 Normally characters destined for a half-line boundary are printed on the
64 following line.
65 .TP
66 \fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-tabs\fR
67 Output tabs instead of multiple spaces.
68 .TP
69 \fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-lines\fR \fInumber\fR
70 Buffer at least
71 .I number
72 lines in memory. By default, 128 lines are buffered.
73 .TP
74 \fB\-p\fR, \fB\-\-pass\fR
75 Force unknown control sequences to be passed through unchanged. Normally
76 .B col
77 will filter out any control sequences other than those
78 recognized and interpreted by itself, which are listed below.
79 .TP
80 \fB\-x\fR, \fB\-\-spaces\fR
81 Output multiple spaces instead of tabs.
82 .TP
83 \fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
84 Display version information and exit.
85 .TP
86 \fB\-H\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
87 Display help text and exit.
88 .SH NOTES
89 The control sequences for carriage motion that
90 .B col
91 understands and their decimal values are listed in the following table:
92 .PP
93 .RS
94 .PD 0
95 .TP 18
96 .B ESC\-7
97 reverse line feed (escape then 7)
98 .TP
99 .B ESC\-8
100 half reverse line feed (escape then 8)
101 .TP
102 .B ESC\-9
103 half forward line feed (escape then 9)
104 .TP
105 .B backspace
106 moves back one column (8); ignored in the first column
107 .TP
108 .B newline
109 forward line feed (10); also does carriage return
110 .TP
111 .B carriage return
112 (13)
113 .TP
114 .B shift in
115 shift to normal character set (15)
116 .TP
117 .B shift out
118 shift to alternate character set (14)
119 .TP
120 .B space
121 moves forward one column (32)
122 .TP
123 .B tab
124 moves forward to next tab stop (9)
125 .TP
126 .B vertical tab
127 reverse line feed (11)
128 .PD
129 .RE
130 .PP
131 All unrecognized control characters and escape sequences are discarded.
132 .PP
133 .B col
134 keeps track of the character set as characters are read and makes sure the
135 character set is correct when they are output.
136 .PP
137 If the input attempts to back up to the last flushed line,
138 .B col
139 will display a warning message.
140 .SH SEE ALSO
141 .BR expand (1),
142 .BR nroff (1),
143 .BR tbl (1)
144 .SH STANDARDS
145 The
146 .B col
147 utility conforms to the Single UNIX Specification, Version 2. The
148 .B \-l
149 option is an extension to the standard.
150 .SH HISTORY
151 A
152 .B col
153 command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
154 .SH AVAILABILITY
155 The col command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
156 .UR https://\:www.kernel.org\:/pub\:/linux\:/utils\:/util-linux/
157 Linux Kernel Archive
158 .UE .