xref: /dragonfly/usr.bin/vis/vis.1 (revision 0ca59c34)
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28.\"     @(#)vis.1	8.4 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
29.\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/vis/vis.1,v 1.6.2.2 2002/06/21 15:30:07 charnier Exp $
30.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.bin/vis/vis.1,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:29:33 dillon Exp $
31.\"
32.Dd April 19, 1994
33.Dt VIS 1
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm vis
37.Nd display non-printable characters in a visual format
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Nm
40.Op Fl cbflnostw
41.Op Fl F Ar foldwidth
42.Op Ar
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm
46utility is a filter for converting non-printable characters
47into a visual representation.  It differs from
48.Ql cat -v
49in that
50the form is unique and invertible.  By default, all non-graphic
51characters except space, tab, and newline are encoded.
52A detailed description of the
53various visual formats is given in
54.Xr vis 3 .
55.Pp
56The options are as follows:
57.Bl -tag -width Ds
58.It Fl b
59Turns off prepending of backslash before up-arrow control sequences
60and meta characters, and disables the doubling of backslashes.  This
61produces output which is neither invertible or precise, but does
62represent a minimum of change to the input.  It is similar to
63.Dq Li cat -v .
64.It Fl c
65Request a format which displays a small subset of the
66non-printable characters using C-style backslash sequences.
67.It Fl F
68Causes
69.Nm
70to fold output lines to foldwidth columns (default 80), like
71.Xr fold 1 ,
72except
73that a hidden newline sequence is used, (which is removed
74when inverting the file back to its original form with
75.Xr unvis 1 ) .
76If the last character in the encoded file does not end in a newline,
77a hidden newline sequence is appended to the output.
78This makes
79the output usable with various editors and other utilities which
80typically don't work with partial lines.
81.It Fl f
82Same as
83.Fl F .
84.It Fl l
85Mark newlines with the visible sequence
86.Ql \e$ ,
87followed by the newline.
88.It Fl n
89Turns off any encoding, except for the fact that backslashes are
90still doubled and hidden newline sequences inserted if
91.Fl f
92or
93.Fl F
94is selected.  When combined with the
95.Fl f
96flag,
97.Nm
98becomes like
99an invertible version of the
100.Xr fold 1
101utility.  That is, the output
102can be unfolded by running the output through
103.Xr unvis 1 .
104.It Fl o
105Request a format which displays non-printable characters as
106an octal number, \eddd.
107.It Fl s
108Only characters considered unsafe to send to a terminal are encoded.
109This flag allows backspace, bell, and carriage return in addition
110to the default space, tab and newline.
111.It Fl t
112Tabs are also encoded.
113.It Fl w
114White space (space-tab-newline) is also encoded.
115.El
116.Sh SEE ALSO
117.Xr unvis 1 ,
118.Xr vis 3
119.Sh HISTORY
120The
121.Nm
122command appeared in
123.Bx 4.4 .
124