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 "October 2010" "util-linux" "User Commands"
  35 .SH NAME
  36 column - columnate lists
  37 .SH SYNOPSIS
  38 .B column
  39 .RB [ options ]
  40 .RI [ file ...]
  41 .SH DESCRIPTION
  42 The
  43 .B column
  44 utility formats its input into multiple columns.  By default, rows
  45 are filled before columns.  Input is taken from \fIfile\fR, or
  46 otherwise from standard input.  Empty lines are ignored.
  47 .PP
  48 .SH OPTIONS
  49 .IP "\fB\-c, \-\-columns\fP \fIwidth\fP"
  50 Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters.
  51 .IP "\fB\-t, \-\-table\fP"
  52 Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a table.
  53 Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or with the characters
  54 supplied using the \fB\-\-output-separator\fP option.
  55 Table output is useful for pretty-printing.
  56 .IP "\fB\-s, \-\-separator\fP \fIseparators\fP"
  57 Specify the possible input item delimiters (default is whitespace).
  58 .IP "\fB\-o, \-\-output-separator\fP \fIstring\fP"
  59 Specify the columns delimiter for table output (default is two spaces).
  60 .IP "\fB\-x, \-\-fillrows\fP"
  61 Fill columns before filling rows.
  62 .IP "\fB\-h, \-\-help\fP"
  63 Display help text and exit.
  64 .SH ENVIRONMENT
  65 The environment variable COLUMNS is used to determine the size of
  66 the screen if no other information is available.
  67 .SH EXAMPLES
  68 .nf
  69 sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column -t
  70 .nf
  71 .SH BUGS
  72 The util-linux version 2.23 changed
  73 .B \-s
  74 option to be non-greedy, for example:
  75 .PP
  76 .EX
  77 $ printf "a:b:c\\n1::3\\n" | column  -t -s ':'
  78 .EE
  79 .PP
  80 old output:
  81 .EX
  82 a  b  c
  83 1  3
  84 .EE
  85 .PP
  86 new output (since util-linux 2.23)
  87 .EX
  88 a  b  c
  89 1     3
  90 .EE
  91 .SH "SEE ALSO"
  92 .BR colrm (1),
  93 .BR ls (1),
  94 .BR paste (1),
  95 .BR sort (1)
  96 .SH HISTORY
  97 The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.
  98 .SH AVAILABILITY
  99 The column command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 100 ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.