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Command: column | Section: 1 | Source: OpenBSD | File: column.1
COLUMN(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual COLUMN(1)
NAME
column - columnate lists
SYNOPSIS
column [-tx] [-c columns] [-s sep] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
The column utility formats its input into multiple columns. Each input
line provides the text for one output cell. Columns are filled before
rows.
The column width is determined by the longest input line rounded up to
the nearest tabstop; tabstops are assumed to be at multiples of eight.
Output uses tab characters to advance to the next column. The number of
columns is chosen to fill the terminal width.
Input is taken from file operands or, by default, from the standard
input. Empty lines and lines containing only whitespace are ignored.
The options are as follows:
-c columns
Output is formatted for a display columns wide.
-s sep Specify a set of characters to delimit columns for the -t option.
It defaults to space and tab.
-t Table mode. Each input line provides the text for one output
row. It is split into cells using the -s option. Leading,
trailing, and multiple adjacent delimiters are ignored. Each
column is as wide as the widest cell in it. Columns are
separated by two spaces.
-x Fill rows before filling columns.
ENVIRONMENT
COLUMNS If set to a positive integer, output is formatted to the given
width in display columns. Otherwise, column defaults to the
terminal width, or 80 columns if the output is not a terminal.
LC_CTYPE The character encoding locale(1). It decides which byte
sequences form characters, what their display width is, and
which characters are whitespace. If unset or set to "C",
"POSIX", or an unsupported value, each byte except the tab is
treated as a character of display width 1.
EXIT STATUS
The column utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
colrm(1), fmt(1), paste(1), rs(1)
HISTORY
The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.
FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8 October 24, 2016 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8