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.\"     @(#)column.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.TH COLUMN 1 "October 2010" "util-linux" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
column - columnate lists
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B column
.RI [ options ]
.IR file ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B column
utility formats its input into multiple columns.  Rows
are filled before columns.  Input is taken from \fIfile\fR or, by
default, from standard input.  Empty lines are ignored.
.PP
.SH OPTIONS
.IP "\fB\-c, \-\-columns\fP \fIwidth\fP"
Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters.
.IP "\fB\-t, \-\-table\fP"
Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a table.
Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or with the characters
supplied using the separator. Table output is useful for pretty-printing.
.IP "\fB\-s, \-\-separator\fP \fIseparator\fP"
Specify table separator (default is whitespace).
.IP "\fB\-x, \-\-fillrows\fP"
Fill columns before filling rows.
.IP "\fB\-h, \-\-help\fP"
Print help and exit.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable COLUMNS is used to determine the size of
the screen if no other information is available.
.SH EXAMPLES
.nf
sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column -t
.nf
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR colrm (1),
.BR ls (1),
.BR paste (1),
.BR sort (1)
.SH HISTORY
The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.
.SH AVAILABILITY
The column command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.