.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
.\"
.\"     @(#)vis.1	5.3 (Berkeley) 03/23/93
.\"
.Dd 
.Dt VIS 1
.Os BSD 4.4
.Sh NAME
.Nm vis
.Nd display non-printable characters in a visual format
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm vis
.Op Fl cbflnostw
.Op Fl F Ar foldwidth
.Op Ar file ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm Vis
is a filter for converting non-printable characters
into a visual representation.  It differs from
.Ql cat -v
in that
the form is unique and invertible.  By default, all non-graphic
characters except space, tab, and newline are encoded.
A detailed description of the
various visual formats is given in
.Xr vis 3 .
.Pp
Options supported by
.Nm vis :
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl b
Turns off prepending of backslash before up-arrow control sequences
and meta characters, and disables the doubling of backslashes.  This
produces output which is neither invertible or precise, but does
represent a minimum of change to the input.  It is similar to
.Dq Li cat -v .
.It Fl c
Request a format which displays a small subset of the
non-printable characters using C-style backslash sequences.
.It Fl F
Causes
.Nm vis
to fold output lines to foldwidth columns (default 80), like
.Xr fold 1 ,
except
that a hidden newline sequence is used, (which is removed
when inverting the file back to its original form with
.Xr unvis 1 ) .
If the last character in the encoded file does not end in a newline,
a hidden newline sequence is appended to the output.
This makes
the output usuable with various editors and other utilities which
typically don't work with partial lines.
.It Fl f
Same as
.Fl F .
.It Fl l
Mark newlines with the visable sequence
.Ql \e$ ,
followed by the newline.
.It Fl n
Turns off any encoding, except for the fact that backslashes are
still doubled and hidden newline sequences inserted if
.Fl f
or
.Fl F
is selected.  When combined with the
.Fl f
flag,
.Nm vis
becomes like
an invertible version of the
.Xr fold 1
utility.  That is, the output
can be unfolded by running the output through
.It Fl o
Request a format which displays non-printable characters as
an octal number, \eddd.
.It Fl s
Only characters considered unsafe to send to a terminal are encoded.
This flag allows backspace, bell, and carriage return in addition
to the default space, tab and newline.
.Xr unvis 1 .
.It Fl t
Tabs are also encoded.
.It Fl w
White space (space-tab-newline) is also encoded.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr unvis 1
.Xr vis 3
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appears in
.Bx 4.4 .