xref: /dragonfly/usr.bin/col/col.1 (revision 6e285212)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
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4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" Michael Rendell.
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35.\"     @(#)col.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/29/93
36.\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/col/col.1,v 1.4.2.7 2002/07/15 04:32:27 keramida Exp $
37.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.bin/col/col.1,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:29:25 dillon Exp $
38.\"
39.Dd June 29, 1993
40.Dt COL 1
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm col
44.Nd filter reverse line feeds from input
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Nm
47.Op Fl bfhpx
48.Op Fl l Ar num
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50The
51.Nm
52utility filters out reverse (and half reverse) line feeds so that the output is
53in the correct order with only forward and half forward line
54feeds, and replaces white-space characters with tabs where possible.
55This can be useful in processing the output of
56.Xr nroff 1
57and
58.Xr tbl  1 .
59.Pp
60The
61.Nm
62utility reads from the standard input and writes to the standard output.
63.Pp
64The options are as follows:
65.Bl -tag -width indent
66.It Fl b
67Do not output any backspaces, printing only the last character
68written to each column position.
69.It Fl f
70Forward half line feeds are permitted (``fine'' mode).
71Normally characters printed on a half line boundary are printed
72on the following line.
73.It Fl h
74Don't output multiple spaces instead of tabs (default).
75.It Fl l Ar num
76Buffer at least
77.Ar num
78lines in memory.
79By default, 128 lines are buffered.
80.It Fl p
81Force unknown control sequences to be passed through unchanged.
82Normally,
83.Nm
84will filter out any control sequences from the input other than those
85recognized and interpreted by itself, which are listed below.
86.It Fl x
87Output multiple spaces instead of tabs.
88.El
89.Pp
90The control sequences for carriage motion that
91.Nm
92understands and their decimal values are listed in the following
93table:
94.Pp
95.Bl -tag -width "carriage return" -compact
96.It ESC\-7
97reverse line feed (escape then 7)
98.It ESC\-8
99half reverse line feed (escape then 8)
100.It ESC\-9
101half forward line feed (escape then 9)
102.It backspace
103moves back one column (8); ignored in the first column
104.It carriage return
105(13)
106.It newline
107forward line feed (10); also does carriage return
108.It shift in
109shift to normal character set (15)
110.It shift out
111shift to alternate character set (14)
112.It space
113moves forward one column (32)
114.It tab
115moves forward to next tab stop (9)
116.It vertical tab
117reverse line feed (11)
118.El
119.Pp
120All unrecognized control characters and escape sequences are
121discarded.
122.Pp
123The
124.Nm
125utility keeps track of the character set as characters are read and makes
126sure the character set is correct when they are output.
127.Pp
128If the input attempts to back up to the last flushed line,
129.Nm
130will display a warning message.
131.Sh SEE ALSO
132.Xr expand 1 ,
133.Xr nroff 1 ,
134.Xr tbl 1
135.Sh STANDARDS
136The
137.Nm
138utility conforms to
139.St -susv2 .
140.Sh HISTORY
141A
142.Nm
143command
144appeared in
145.At v6 .
146