NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | HISTORY | SEE ALSO | REPORTING BUGS | AVAILABILITY |
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COL(1) User Commands COL(1)
col - filter reverse line feeds from input
col options
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 nroff(1) and tbl(1). col reads from standard input and writes to standard output.
-b, --no-backspaces Do not output any backspaces, printing only the last character written to each column position. -f, --fine Permit half-forward line feeds. Normally characters destined for a half-line boundary are printed on the following line. -h, --tabs Output tabs instead of multiple spaces. -l, --lines number Buffer at least number lines in memory. By default, 128 lines are buffered. -p, --pass Force unknown control sequences to be passed through unchanged. Normally col will filter out any control sequences other than those recognized and interpreted by itself, which are listed below. -x, --spaces Output multiple spaces instead of tabs. -H, --help Display help text and exit. -V, --version Print version and exit.
The col utility conforms to the Single UNIX Specification, Version 2. The -l option is an extension to the standard.
The control sequences for carriage motion that col understands and their decimal values are listed in the following table: ESC-7 reverse line feed (escape then 7) ESC-8 half reverse line feed (escape then 8) ESC-9 half forward line feed (escape then 9) backspace moves back one column (8); ignored in the first column newline forward line feed (10); also does carriage return carriage return (13) shift in shift to normal character set (15) shift out shift to alternate character set (14) space moves forward one column (32) tab moves forward to next tab stop (9) vertical tab reverse line feed (11) All unrecognized control characters and escape sequences are discarded. col keeps track of the character set as characters are read and makes sure the character set is correct when they are output. If the input attempts to back up to the last flushed line, col will display a warning message.
A col command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
expand(1), nroff(1), tbl(1)
For bug reports, use the issue tracker at https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.
The col command is part of the util-linux package which can be
downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
<https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. This page
is part of the util-linux (a random collection of Linux
utilities) project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have
a bug report for this manual page, send it to
[email protected]. This page was obtained from the
project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
2024-06-14. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit
that was found in the repository was 2024-06-10.) If you discover
any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
or you have corrections or improvements to the information in
this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page),
send a mail to [email protected]
util-linux 2.39.777-d8379 2023-11-01 COL(1)
Pages that refer to this page: colcrt(1)