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| .\" @(#)column.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 |
| .\" |
| .TH COLUMN 1 "January 2017" "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, columns |
| are filled before rows. Input is taken from \fIfile\fR, or |
| otherwise from standard input. Empty lines are ignored. |
| .PP |
| .SH OPTIONS |
| .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 deprecated since v2.30. |
| .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 rows before filling columns. |
| .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 |
| https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/. |