col(1)							      General Commands Manual							    col(1)

NAME

       col - Filters text containing linefeeds

SYNOPSIS

       col [-bfhpx] [-l number]

       The col command reads from standard input and writes to standard output.

STANDARDS

       Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows:

       col:  XCU5.0

       Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags.

OPTIONS

       Assumes	that  the  output device in use is not capable of backspacing.	In this case, if two or more characters are to be displayed in the
       same position, only the last one that is read is displayed in the output.  This function is useful for converting nroff output  to  produce
       readable  results on terminals or printers that do not support underlining or overstriking characters.  Suppresses the default treatment of
       half-line motions in the input.	Normally, col does not emit half-line motions on output, although it does accept them in its input.   With
       this option, output may contain forward half-linefeeds (<ESC-9>), but not reverse linefeeds (<ESC-7> or <ESC-8>).  [Tru64 UNIX]	Compresses
       spaces into tabs. This is the default.  [Tru64 UNIX]  Buffers at least number lines in memory.  By default, 128 lines are  buffered.   Dis-
       plays  unknown  escape sequences as characters, subject to overprinting from reverse line motions.  Normally, col ignores them.	You should
       be fully aware of the textual position of escape sequences before you use this option.  Outputs multiple spaces instead of tabs.

OPERANDS

       None

DESCRIPTION

       The col command performs the line overlays implied by reverse linefeeds (ASCII <ESC-7>), and by forward and reverse  half-linefeeds  (ASCII
       <ESC-9> and ASCII <ESC-8>).  It also replaces white-space characters with tabs where possible.

       [Tru64 UNIX]  The col command is particularly useful for filtering multicolumn output made by the nroff and tbl commands.

       The  col  command  assumes that the ASCII control characters SO (17) and SI (16) begin and end text in an alternate character set.  The
       col command remembers the character set each input character belongs to, and on output generates SI and SO  characters  as  appropriate	to
       ensure that each character is printed in the correct character set.

       On  input,  the col command accepts only the control characters for the <Space>, <Backspace>, <Tab>, and <Return> keys; the newline charac-
       ter; the SI, SO, and VT control characters; and <ESC-7>, <ESC-8>, or <ESC-9>.  The VT control character (13) is an alternate form of full
       reverse	linefeed included for compatibility with some earlier programs of this type.  The col command discards all other nonprinting char-
       acters.

       [Tru64 UNIX]  If the input attempts to back up to the last flushed line, col displays a warning message.

NOTES

       Depending on the printer, using the -x option may increase printing time.  Local vertical motion that causes  a	backwards  move  over  the
       first line of input is ignored.	The first line of input may not have any superscripts.	This command is marked LEGACY in XCU Issue 5.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned: Successful completion.  An error occurred.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The  following  environment variables affect the execution of col: Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are
       unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the default locale is used.  If any of the internationalization vari-
       ables  contain  an  invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined.  If set to a non-empty string value,
       overrides the values of all the other internationalization variables.  Determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences  of  bytes
       of  text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multibyte characters in arguments).	Determines the locale for the for-
       mat and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.  Determines the location of message catalogues  for  the  processing	of
       LC_MESSAGES.

SEE ALSO

       Commands:  deroff(1), neqn(1), nroff(1), tbl(1)

       Standards:  standards(5)

																	    col(1)