| .\" Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California. |
| .\" All rights reserved. |
| .\" |
| .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by |
| .\" Michael Rendell. |
| .\" |
| .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without |
| .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions |
| .\" are met: |
| .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright |
| .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. |
| .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright |
| .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the |
| .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. |
| .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software |
| .\" must display the following acknowledgement: |
| .\" This product includes software developed by the University of |
| .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. |
| .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors |
| .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software |
| .\" without specific prior written permission. |
| .\" |
| .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND |
| .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE |
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| .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) |
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| .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY |
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| .\" SUCH DAMAGE. |
| .\" |
| .\" @(#)col.1 6.8 (Berkeley) 6/17/91 |
| .\" |
| .TH COL "1" "July 2014" "util-linux" "User Commands" |
| .SH NAME |
| col \- filter reverse line feeds from input |
| .SH SYNOPSIS |
| .B col |
| [options] |
| .SH DESCRIPTION |
| .B col |
| filters out reverse (and half-reverse) line feeds so the output is in the |
| correct order, with only forward and half-forward line feeds. It also replaces |
| any whitespace characters with tabs where possible. This can be useful in |
| processing the output of |
| .BR nroff (1) |
| and |
| .BR tbl (1). |
| .PP |
| .B col |
| reads from standard input and writes to standard output. |
| .SH OPTIONS |
| .TP |
| \fB\-b\fR, \fB\-\-no\-backspaces\fR |
| Do not output any backspaces, printing only the last character written to |
| each column position. |
| .TP |
| \fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-fine\fR |
| Permit half-forward line feeds. |
| Normally characters destined for a half-line boundary are printed on the |
| following line. |
| .TP |
| \fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-tabs\fR |
| Output tabs instead of multiple spaces. |
| .TP |
| \fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-lines\fR \fInumber\fR |
| Buffer at least |
| .I number |
| lines in memory. By default, 128 lines are buffered. |
| .TP |
| \fB\-p\fR, \fB\-\-pass\fR |
| Force unknown control sequences to be passed through unchanged. Normally |
| .B col |
| will filter out any control sequences other than those |
| recognized and interpreted by itself, which are listed below. |
| .TP |
| \fB\-x\fR, \fB\-\-spaces\fR |
| Output multiple spaces instead of tabs. |
| .TP |
| \fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR |
| Display version information and exit. |
| .TP |
| \fB\-H\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR |
| Display help text and exit. |
| .SH NOTES |
| The control sequences for carriage motion that |
| .B col |
| understands and their decimal values are listed in the following table: |
| .PP |
| .RS |
| .PD 0 |
| .TP 18 |
| .B ESC\-7 |
| reverse line feed (escape then 7) |
| .TP |
| .B ESC\-8 |
| half reverse line feed (escape then 8) |
| .TP |
| .B ESC\-9 |
| half forward line feed (escape then 9) |
| .TP |
| .B backspace |
| moves back one column (8); ignored in the first column |
| .TP |
| .B newline |
| forward line feed (10); also does carriage return |
| .TP |
| .B carriage return |
| (13) |
| .TP |
| .B shift in |
| shift to normal character set (15) |
| .TP |
| .B shift out |
| shift to alternate character set (14) |
| .TP |
| .B space |
| moves forward one column (32) |
| .TP |
| .B tab |
| moves forward to next tab stop (9) |
| .TP |
| .B vertical tab |
| reverse line feed (11) |
| .PD |
| .RE |
| .PP |
| All unrecognized control characters and escape sequences are discarded. |
| .PP |
| .B col |
| keeps track of the character set as characters are read and makes sure the |
| character set is correct when they are output. |
| .PP |
| If the input attempts to back up to the last flushed line, |
| .B col |
| will display a warning message. |
| .SH SEE ALSO |
| .BR expand (1), |
| .BR nroff (1), |
| .BR tbl (1) |
| .SH STANDARDS |
| The |
| .B col |
| utility conforms to the Single UNIX Specification, Version 2. The |
| .B \-l |
| option is an extension to the standard. |
| .SH HISTORY |
| A |
| .B col |
| command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. |
| .SH AVAILABILITY |
| The col command is part of the util-linux package and is available from |
| .UR ftp://\:ftp.kernel.org\:/pub\:/linux\:/utils\:/util-linux/ |
| Linux Kernel Archive |
| .UE . |