text-utils/col.1

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  35 .\"     @(#)col.1       6.8 (Berkeley) 6/17/91
  36 .\"
  37 .Dd June 17, 1991
  38 .Dt COL 1
  39 .Os
  40 .Sh NAME
  41 .Nm col
  42 .Nd filter reverse line feeds from input
  43 .Sh SYNOPSIS
  44 .Nm col
  45 .Op Fl bfphx
  46 .Op Fl l Ar num
  47 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  48 .Nm Col
  49 filters out reverse (and half reverse) line feeds so the output is
  50 in the correct order with only forward and half forward line
  51 feeds, and replaces white-space characters with tabs where possible.
  52 This can be useful in processing the output of
  53 .Xr nroff 1
  54 and
  55 .Xr tbl  1 .
  56 .Pp
  57 .Nm Col
  58 reads from standard input and writes to standard output.
  59 .Pp
  60 The options are as follows:
  61 .Bl -tag -width "-lnum"
  62 .It Fl b, Fl Fl no-backspaces
  63 Do not output any backspaces, printing only the last character
  64 written to each column position.
  65 .It Fl f, Fl Fl fine
  66 Forward half line feeds are permitted (``fine'' mode).
  67 Normally characters printed on a half line boundary are printed
  68 on the following line.
  69 .It Fl p, Fl Fl pass
  70 Force unknown control sequences to be passed through unchanged.
  71 Normally,
  72 .Nm col
  73 will filter out any control sequences from the input other than those
  74 recognized and interpreted by itself, which are listed below.
  75 .It Fl h, Fl Fl tabs
  76 Output tabs instead of multiple spaces.
  77 .It Fl x, Fl Fl spaces
  78 Output multiple spaces instead of tabs.
  79 .It Fl l, Fl Fl lines Ar num
  80 Buffer at least
  81 .Ar num
  82 lines in memory.
  83 By default, 128 lines are buffered.
  84 .It Fl V, Fl Fl version
  85 Output version information and exit.
  86 .It Fl H, Fl Fl help
  87 Output help and exit.
  88 .El
  89 .Pp
  90 The control sequences for carriage motion that
  91 .Nm col
  92 understands and their decimal values are listed in the following
  93 table:
  94 .Pp
  95 .Bl -tag -width "carriage return" -compact
  96 .It ESC\-7
  97 reverse line feed (escape then 7)
  98 .It ESC\-8
  99 half reverse line feed (escape then 8)
 100 .It ESC\-9
 101 half forward line feed (escape then 9)
 102 .It backspace
 103 moves back one column (8); ignored in the first column
 104 .It carriage return
 105 (13)
 106 .It newline
 107 forward line feed (10); also does carriage return
 108 .It shift in
 109 shift to normal character set (15)
 110 .It shift out
 111 shift to alternate character set (14)
 112 .It space
 113 moves forward one column (32)
 114 .It tab
 115 moves forward to next tab stop (9)
 116 .It vertical tab
 117 reverse line feed (11)
 118 .El
 119 .Pp
 120 All unrecognized control characters and escape sequences are
 121 discarded.
 122 .Pp
 123 .Nm Col
 124 keeps track of the character set as characters are read and makes
 125 sure the character set is correct when they are output.
 126 .Pp
 127 If the input attempts to back up to the last flushed line,
 128 .Nm col
 129 will display a warning message.
 130 .Sh SEE ALSO
 131 .Xr expand 1 ,
 132 .Xr nroff 1 ,
 133 .Xr tbl 1
 134 .Sh STANDARDS
 135 The
 136 .Nm col
 137 utility conforms to the Single UNIX Specification, Version 2. The
 138 .Fl l
 139 option is an extension to the standard.
 140 .Sh HISTORY
 141 A
 142 .Nm col
 143 command
 144 appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
 145 .Sh AVAILABILITY
 146 The col command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 147 ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.