col

 

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 User Commands                                              col(1)
 
 
 


NAME
      col - reverse line-feeds filter
 


SYNOPSIS
      col [ -bfpx ]
 


DESCRIPTION
      The col utility reads from the standard input and writes  to
      the  standard  output. It performs the line overlays implied
      by reverse line-feeds, and  by  forward  and  reverse  half-
      line-feeds.   Unless -x is used, all blank characters in the
      input will be converted to tab characters wherever possible.
      col is particularly useful for filtering multi-column output
      made with the .rt command of nroff(1) and  output  resulting
      from use of the tbl(1) preprocessor.
 
      The ASCII control characters SO and SI are assumed by col to
      start  and  end  text  in  an alternative character set. The
      character set to  which  each  input  character  belongs  is
      remembered, and on output SI and SO characters are generated
      as appropriate to ensure that each character is  written  in
      the correct character set.
 
      On input, the only control characters  accepted  are  space,
      backspace,  tab, carriage-return and newline characters, SI,
      SO,  VT,  reverse  line-feed,  forward  half-line-feed   and
      reverse  half-line-feed.  The VT character is an alternative
      form of full reverse line-feed, included  for  compatibility
      with  some  earlier  programs  of  this type. The only other
      characters to be copied to the output  are  those  that  are
      printable.
 
      The ASCII codes for the control  functions  and  line-motion
      sequences  mentioned  above are as given in the table below.
      ESC stands for the ASCII escape character,  with  the  octal
      code  033; ESC- means a sequence of two characters, ESC fol-
      lowed by the character x.
 
      reverse line-feed             ESC-7
      reverse half-line-feed        ESC-8
      forward half-line-feed        ESC-9
      vertical-tab (VT)             013
      start-of-text (SO)            016
      end-of-text (SI)              017
 
 


OPTIONS
      -b    Assume that the output device in use is not capable of
            backspacing.  In  this case, if two or more characters
            are to appear in the same place,  only  the  last  one
            read will be output.
 
 
 
 
 SunOS 5.8            Last change: 1 Feb 1995                    1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 User Commands                                              col(1)
 
 
 
      -f    Although col accepts half-line motions in  its  input,
            it  normally  does  not  emit them on output. Instead,
            text that would appear between lines is moved  to  the
            next  lower  full-line boundary. This treatment can be
            suppressed by the -f (fine) option; in this case,  the
            output  from  col  may contain forward half-line-feeds
            (ESC-9), but will still never contain either  kind  of
            reverse line motion.
 
      -p    Normally, col will ignore any escape sequences unknown
            to  it  that are found in its input; the -p option may
            be used to cause col to output these sequences as reg-
            ular  characters, subject to overprinting from reverse
            line  motions.  The  use  of  this  option  is  highly
            discouraged unless the user is fully aware of the tex-
            tual position of the escape sequences.
 
      -x    Prevent col from converting blank  characters  to  tab
            characters  on output wherever possible. Tab stops are
            considered to be at each column position n such that n
            modulo 8 equals 1.
 
 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
      See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
      variables  that  affect  the  execution  of  col:  LC_CTYPE,
      LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.
 
 EXIT STATUS
      The following error values are returned:
 
      0     Successful completion.
 
      >0    An error occurred.
 


ATTRIBUTES
      See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
      butes:
 
      ____________________________________________________________
     |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
     |_____________________________|_____________________________|
     | Availability                | SUNWesu                     |
     |_____________________________|_____________________________|
     | CSI                         | enabled                     |
     |_____________________________|_____________________________|
 
 


SEE ALSO
      nroff(1), tbl(1), ascii(5), attributes(5), environ(5)
 


NOTES
 
 
 
 
 SunOS 5.8            Last change: 1 Feb 1995                    2
 
 
 
 
 
 
 User Commands                                              col(1)
 
 
 
      The input format accepted by col matches the output produced
      by nroff with either the -T37 or -Tlp options. Use -T37 (and
      the -f option of col) if the  ultimate  disposition  of  the
      output  of col will be a device that can interpret half-line
      motions, and -Tlp otherwise.
 
      col cannot back up more than 128 lines or handle  more  than
      800 characters per line.
 
      Local vertical motions that would result in backing up  over
      the first line of the document are ignored. As a result, the
      first line must not have any superscripts.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SunOS 5.8            Last change: 1 Feb 1995                    3
 
 
 

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