README
1>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ALIGN <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
2
3 http://kinzler.com/me/align
4
5`Align` is a general-purpose text filter tool that helps vertically
6align columns in string-separated tables of input text. With
7whitespace-separated columns, you can often use it without arguments and
8it'll guess the right thing to do. Otherwise, you can specify arguments
9to direct how the columns are separated on input and rejoined in the
10aligned output. For example,
11
12 $ head -5 access.log
13 22.56.17.4 - 04/Dec/2000:04:08:53 GET /pub HTTP/1.0 408 - 23146
14 hrl.com - 04/Dec/2000:07:17:32 GET /zen HTTP/1.0 404 272 27583
15 gw.kpmg.ie - 04/Dec/2000:09:37:56 GET / HTTP/1.0 200 8135 658
16 c1.aici.com - 04/Dec/2000:13:25:00 GET / HTTP/1.1 200 8135 8850
17 dabs.com - 04/Dec/2000:15:04:29 GET / HTTP/1.1 408 - 12305
18
19 $ head -5 access.log | align
20 22.56.17.4 - 04/Dec/2000:04:08:53 GET /pub HTTP/1.0 408 - 23146
21 hrl.com - 04/Dec/2000:07:17:32 GET /zen HTTP/1.0 404 272 27583
22 gw.kpmg.ie - 04/Dec/2000:09:37:56 GET / HTTP/1.0 200 8135 658
23 c1.aici.com - 04/Dec/2000:13:25:00 GET / HTTP/1.1 200 8135 8850
24 dabs.com - 04/Dec/2000:15:04:29 GET / HTTP/1.1 408 - 12305
25
26Here, `align` correctly guessed that columns were separated by a single
27space character and generated an alignment using multiple spaces between
28columns. Also, the type of alignment within a column can be specified
29to be "left", "right", "center", "numeric" or "zero-padded numeric".
30
31Also included in this package is `width`, another general-purpose text
32filter tool that helps you work with the printing width or length of
33lines of input text. For example, it can print the width, location
34and/or content for its longest line or lines of input, or for all lines.
35For example,
36
37 % head -5 access.log | width -awnl
38 63:1:22.56.17.4 - 04/Dec/2000:04:08:53 GET /pub HTTP/1.0 408 - 23146
39 63:4:c1.aici.com - 04/Dec/2000:13:25:00 GET / HTTP/1.1 200 8135 8850
40
41Running `align -h` and `width -h` will provide complete usage summaries.
42
43 100% FREE award granted by Softpedia
44 http://mac.softpedia.com/progClean/Align-Clean-59781.html
45
46---------------------------- INSTALLATION ----------------------------
47
48"align" and "width" are Perl scripts that you should be able to install
49as-is, ie executable in a directory in your PATH. Edit the first
50line of the scripts, if necessary, to contain the proper path to your
51perl executable. Alternately, you can use the supplied Makefile to do
52all this. Just edit the top of the Makefile to your desires and then run:
53
54 make
55 make install
56
57--------------------------- GPL COPYRIGHT ----------------------------
58
59align
60Copyright (C) 2000-2001 Stephen B Kinzler
61width
62Copyright (C) 1993-2001 Stephen B Kinzler
63
64These programs are free software; you can redistribute them and/or modify
65them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
66the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or any
67later version.
68
69These programs are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but
70WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
71or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
72for more details.
73
74You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
75with these programs (see the file "COPYING"); if not, write to the Free
76Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston,
77MA 02110-1301 USA
78
79--------------------- SOFTWARE BY STEVE KINZLER ----------------------
80
81Unix Home Dir http://kinzler.com/me/home.html
82 Many scripts and config files for Unix/X11 environments
83align http://kinzler.com/me/align
84 A text column alignment filter
85vshnu http://kinzler.com/me/vshnu
86 A visual shell and CLI shell supplement
87webrowse http://kinzler.com/me/webrowse
88 Tools to interface web browsers to the Unix user CLI
89xtitle http://kinzler.com/me/xtitle
90 Set window title and icon name for an X11 terminal window
91z http://kinzler.com/me/z
92 A convenience frontend for tar, gzip, zip, etc
93
94========================================================================
95
96Steve Kinzler <steve@kinzler.com> December 2001
97http://kinzler.com/me
98