text-utils/column.1

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  32 .\"     @(#)column.1    8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
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  34 .TH COLUMN 1 "January 2017" "util-linux" "User Commands"
  35 .SH NAME
  36 column \- columnate lists
  37 .SH SYNOPSIS
  38 .BR column " [options]"
  39 .RI [ file ...]
  40 .SH DESCRIPTION
  41 The
  42 .B column
  43 utility formats its input into multiple columns.  By default, columns
  44 are filled before rows.  Input is taken from \fIfile\fR, or
  45 otherwise from standard input.  Empty lines are ignored.
  46 .PP
  47 .SH OPTIONS
  48 .IP "\fB\-J, \-\-json\fP"
  49 Use JSON output format to print the table, the option
  50 \fB\-\-table\-colnames\fP is required and the option \fB\-\-table\-name\fP is recommended.
  51 .IP "\fB\-c, \-\-output\-width\fP \fIwidth\fP"
  52 Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters. The original
  53 name of this option is --columns; this name deprecated since v2.30.
  54 .IP "\fB\-o, \-\-output\-separator\fP \fIstring\fP"
  55 Specify the columns delimiter for table output (default is two spaces).
  56 .IP "\fB\-s, \-\-separator\fP \fIseparators\fP"
  57 Specify the possible input item delimiters (default is whitespace).
  58 .IP "\fB\-t, \-\-table\fP"
  59 Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a table.
  60 Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or with the characters
  61 supplied using the \fB\-\-output\-separator\fP option.
  62 Table output is useful for pretty-printing.
  63 .IP "\fB\-N, \-\-table-columns\fP \fInames\fP"
  64 Specify the columns names by comma separated list of names. The names are used
  65 for the table header or to addres column in option arguments.
  66 .IP "\fB\-R, \-\-table-right\fP \fIcolumns\fP"
  67 Right align text in the specified columns.  The \fIcolumns\fP is comma separated
  68 list of the column names (see \fB\-\-table-columns\fP) or column number.
  69 .IP "\fB\-n, \-\-table-name\fP \fIname\fP"
  70 Specify the table name used for JSON output. The defaout is "table".
  71 .IP "\fB\-x, \-\-fillrows\fP"
  72 Fill rows before filling columns.
  73 .IP "\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR"
  74 Display version information and exit.
  75 .IP "\fB\-h, \-\-help\fP"
  76 Display help text and exit.
  77 .SH ENVIRONMENT
  78 The environment variable \fBCOLUMNS\fR is used to determine the size of
  79 the screen if no other information is available.
  80 .SH EXAMPLES
  81 .nf
  82 .B sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column -t
  83 .nf
  84 .SH BUGS
  85 Version 2.23 changed the
  86 .B \-s
  87 option to be non-greedy, for example:
  88 .PP
  89 .EX
  90 \fBprintf "a:b:c\\n1::3\\n" | column  -t -s ':'\fR
  91 .EE
  92 .PP
  93 Old output:
  94 .EX
  95 a  b  c
  96 1  3
  97 .EE
  98 .PP
  99 New output (since util-linux 2.23):
 100 .EX
 101 a  b  c
 102 1     3
 103 .EE
 104 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 105 .BR colrm (1),
 106 .BR ls (1),
 107 .BR paste (1),
 108 .BR sort (1)
 109 .SH HISTORY
 110 The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.
 111 .SH AVAILABILITY
 112 The column command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 113 https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.