.\"
.\" @(#)column.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
-.TH COLUMN 1 "July 2014" "util-linux" "User Commands"
+.TH COLUMN 1 "February 2019" "util-linux" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
column \- columnate lists
.SH SYNOPSIS
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B column
-utility formats its input into multiple columns. By default, rows
-are filled before columns. Input is taken from \fIfile\fR, or
-otherwise from standard input. Empty lines are ignored.
+utility formats its input into multiple columns. The util support three modes:
+.TP
+.B columns are filled before rows
+This is the default mode (required by backward compatibility).
+.TP
+.B rows are filled before columns
+This mode is enabled by option \fB\-x, \-\-fillrows\fP
+.TP
+.B table
+Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a table. This
+mode is enabled by option \fB\-t, \-\-table\fP and columns formatting is
+possible to modify by \fB\-\-table-*\fP options. Use this mode if not sure.
+.PP
+Input is taken from \fIfile\fR, or otherwise from standard input. Empty lines
+are ignored and all invalid multibyte sequences are encoded by \\x<hex> convention.
.PP
.SH OPTIONS
-.IP "\fB\-c, \-\-columns\fP \fIwidth\fP"
-Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters.
+The argument \fIcolumns\fP for \fB\-\-table-*\fP options is comma separated
+list of the column names as defined by \fB\-\-table-columns\fP or it's column
+number in order as specified by input. It's possible to mix names and numbers.
+.PP
+.IP "\fB\-J, \-\-json\fP"
+Use JSON output format to print the table, the option
+\fB\-\-table\-columns\fP is required and the option \fB\-\-table\-name\fP is recommended.
+.IP "\fB\-c, \-\-output\-width\fP \fIwidth\fP"
+Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters. The original
+name of this option is \-\-columns; this name is deprecated since v2.30. Note that input
+longer than \fIwidth\fP is not truncated by default.
+.IP "\fB\-d, \-\-table\-noheadings\fP"
+Do not print header. This option allows to use logical column names on command line, but keep the header hidden when print the table.
.IP "\fB\-o, \-\-output\-separator\fP \fIstring\fP"
Specify the columns delimiter for table output (default is two spaces).
.IP "\fB\-s, \-\-separator\fP \fIseparators\fP"
Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or with the characters
supplied using the \fB\-\-output\-separator\fP option.
Table output is useful for pretty-printing.
+.IP "\fB\-N, \-\-table-columns\fP \fInames\fP"
+Specify the columns names by comma separated list of names. The names are used
+for the table header or to address column in option arguments.
+.IP "\fB\-R, \-\-table-right\fP \fIcolumns\fP"
+Right align text in the specified columns.
+.IP "\fB\-T, \-\-table-truncate\fP \fIcolumns\fP"
+Specify columns where is allowed to truncate text when necessary, otherwise
+very long table entries may be printed on multiple lines.
+.IP "\fB\-E, \-\-table-noextreme\fP \fIcolumns\fP"
+Specify columns where is possible to ignore unusually long (longer than
+average) cells when calculate column width. The option has impact to the width
+calculation and table formatting, but the printed text is not affected.
+
+The option is used for the last visible column by default.
+
+.IP "\fB\-e, \-\-table\-header\-repeat\fP"
+Print header line for each page.
+.IP "\fB\-W, \-\-table-wrap\fP \fIcolumns\fP"
+Specify columns where is possible to use multi-line cell for long text when
+necessary.
+.IP "\fB\-H, \-\-table-hide\fP \fIcolumns\fP"
+Don't print specified columns. The special placeholder '\-' may be used to
+hide all unnamed columns (see \-\-table-columns).
+.IP "\fB\-O, \-\-table-order\fP \fIcolumns\fP"
+Specify columns order on output.
+.IP "\fB\-n, \-\-table-name\fP \fIname\fP"
+Specify the table name used for JSON output. The default is "table".
+.IP "\fB\-L, \-\-table\-empty\-lines\fP"
+Insert empty line to the table for each empty line on input. The default
+is ignore empty lines at all.
+.IP "\fB\-r, \-\-tree\fP \fIcolumn\fP"
+Specify column to use tree-like output. Note that the circular dependencies and
+another anomalies in child and parent relation are silently ignored.
+.IP "\fB\-i, \-\-tree\-id\fP \fIcolumn\fP"
+Specify column with line ID to create child-parent relation.
+.IP "\fB\-p, \-\-tree\-parent\fP \fIcolumn\fP"
+Specify column with parent ID to create child-parent relation.
+.PP
.IP "\fB\-x, \-\-fillrows\fP"
-Fill columns before filling rows.
+Fill rows before filling columns.
.IP "\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR"
Display version information and exit.
.IP "\fB\-h, \-\-help\fP"
.SH ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable \fBCOLUMNS\fR is used to determine the size of
the screen if no other information is available.
-.SH EXAMPLES
-.nf
-.B sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column -t
-.nf
+.SH HISTORY
+The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.
.SH BUGS
Version 2.23 changed the
.B \-s
option to be non-greedy, for example:
.PP
.EX
-\fBprintf "a:b:c\\n1::3\\n" | column -t -s ':'\fR
+\fBprintf "a:b:c\\n1::3\\n" | column \-t \-s ':'\fR
.EE
.PP
Old output:
a b c
1 3
.EE
-.SH "SEE ALSO"
+.PP
+Historical versions of this tool indicated that "rows are filled before
+columns" by default, and that the
+.B \-x
+option reverses this. This wording did not reflect the actual behavior, and it
+has since been corrected (see above). Other implementations of
+.B column
+may continue to use the older documentation, but the behavior should be
+identical in any case.
+.SH EXAMPLE
+Print fstab with header line and align number to the right:
+.EX
+\fBsed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column \-\-table \-\-table-columns SOURCE,TARGET,TYPE,OPTIONS,PASS,FREQ \-\-table-right PASS,FREQ\fR
+.EE
+.PP
+Print fstab and hide unnamed columns:
+.EX
+\fBsed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column \-\-table \-\-table-columns SOURCE,TARGET,TYPE \-\-table-hide \-\fR
+.EE
+.PP
+
+.PP
+Print a tree:
+.EX
+\fBecho \-e '1 0 A\\n2 1 AA\\n3 1 AB\\n4 2 AAA\\n5 2 AAB' | column \-\-tree-id 1 \-\-tree-parent 2 \-\-tree 3\fR
+1 0 A
+2 1 |-AA
+4 2 | |-AAA
+5 2 | `-AAB
+3 1 `-AB
+.EE
+.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/.
+https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
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