text-utils/column.1

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.\"     @(#)column.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.TH COLUMN 1 "July 2014" "util-linux" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
column \- columnate lists
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BR column " [options]"
.RI [ file ...]
.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.
.PP
.SH OPTIONS
.IP "\fB\-c, \-\-columns\fP \fIwidth\fP"
Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters.
.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"
Specify the possible input item delimiters (default is whitespace).
.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 \fB\-\-output\-separator\fP option.
Table output is useful for pretty-printing.
.IP "\fB\-x, \-\-fillrows\fP"
Fill columns before filling rows.
.IP "\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR"
Display version information and exit.
.IP "\fB\-h, \-\-help\fP"
Display help text and exit.
.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 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
.EE
.PP
Old output:
.EX
a  b  c
1  3
.EE
.PP
New output (since util-linux 2.23):
.EX
a  b  c
1     3
.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/.