fmt(1) [minix man page]

FMT(1)							      General Commands Manual							    FMT(1)

NAME

       fmt - adjust line-length for paragraphs of text

SYNOPSIS

       fmt [-width] [files]...

DESCRIPTION

       fmt  is	a simple text formatter.  It inserts or deletes newlines, as necessary, to make all lines in a paragraph be approximately the same
       width.  It preserves indentation and word spacing.

       The default line width is 72 characters.  You can override this with the -width flag.  If you don't name any files  on  the  command  line,
       then fmt will read from stdin.

       It  is  typically used from within vi to adjust the line breaks in a single paragraph.  To do this, move the cursor to the top of the para-
       graph, type "!}fmt", and hit <Return>.

AUTHOR

       Steve Kirkendall
       kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu

																	    FMT(1)

FMT(1)							    BSD General Commands Manual 						    FMT(1)

NAME

     fmt -- simple text formatter

SYNOPSIS

     fmt [-Cr] [goal [maximum]] [name ...]
     fmt [-Cr] [-g goal] [-m maximum] [name ...]

DESCRIPTION

     fmt is a simple text formatter which reads the concatenation of input files (or standard input if none are given) and produces on standard
     output a version of its input with lines as close to the goal length as possible without exceeding the maximum.  The goal length defaults to
     65 and the maximum to 75.	The spacing at the beginning of the input lines is preserved in the output, as are blank lines and interword spac-
     ing.  In non raw mode, lines that look like mail headers or begin with a period are not formatted.

     -C 	 instructs fmt to center the text.

     -g goal	 New way to set the goal length.

     -m maximum  New way to set the maximum length.

     -r 	 Raw mode; formats all lines and does not make exceptions for lines that start with a period or look like mail headers.

     fmt is meant to format mail messages prior to sending, but may also be useful for other simple tasks.  For instance, within visual mode of
     the ex(1) editor (e.g., vi(1)) the command

	   !}fmt

     will reformat a paragraph, evening the lines.

SEE ALSO

     mail(1), nroff(1)

HISTORY

     The fmt command appeared in 3BSD.

BUGS

     The program was designed to be simple and fast - for more complex operations, the standard text processors are likely to be more appropriate.

BSD
								   May 29, 2007 							       BSD