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 "July 2014" "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, rows
  44 are filled before columns.  Input is taken from \fIfile\fR, or
  45 otherwise from standard input.  Empty lines are ignored.
  46 .PP
  47 .SH OPTIONS
  48 .IP "\fB\-c, \-\-columns\fP \fIwidth\fP"
  49 Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters.
  50 .IP "\fB\-o, \-\-output\-separator\fP \fIstring\fP"
  51 Specify the columns delimiter for table output (default is two spaces).
  52 .IP "\fB\-s, \-\-separator\fP \fIseparators\fP"
  53 Specify the possible input item delimiters (default is whitespace).
  54 .IP "\fB\-t, \-\-table\fP"
  55 Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a table.
  56 Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or with the characters
  57 supplied using the \fB\-\-output\-separator\fP option.
  58 Table output is useful for pretty-printing.
  59 .IP "\fB\-x, \-\-fillrows\fP"
  60 Fill columns before filling rows.
  61 .IP "\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR"
  62 Display version information and exit.
  63 .IP "\fB\-h, \-\-help\fP"
  64 Display help text and exit.
  65 .SH ENVIRONMENT
  66 The environment variable \fBCOLUMNS\fR is used to determine the size of
  67 the screen if no other information is available.
  68 .SH EXAMPLES
  69 .nf
  70 .B sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column -t
  71 .nf
  72 .SH BUGS
  73 Version 2.23 changed the
  74 .B \-s
  75 option to be non-greedy, for example:
  76 .PP
  77 .EX
  78 \fBprintf "a:b:c\\n1::3\\n" | column  -t -s ':'\fR
  79 .EE
  80 .PP
  81 Old output:
  82 .EX
  83 a  b  c
  84 1  3
  85 .EE
  86 .PP
  87 New output (since util-linux 2.23):
  88 .EX
  89 a  b  c
  90 1     3
  91 .EE
  92 .SH "SEE ALSO"
  93 .BR colrm (1),
  94 .BR ls (1),
  95 .BR paste (1),
  96 .BR sort (1)
  97 .SH HISTORY
  98 The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.
  99 .SH AVAILABILITY
 100 The column command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 101 https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.