col(1) [ultrix man page]
col(1) General Commands Manual col(1) Name col - filter reverse line feeds Syntax col [-options] Description The command reads the standard input and writes the standard output. It performs the line overlays implied by reverse line feeds (ESC-7 in ASCII) and by forward and reverse half line feeds (ESC-9 and ESC-8, respectively). The command is particularly useful for filtering multi- column output made with the command of and for filtering output resulting from the preprocessor. Although accepts half line motions in its input, it does not normally output them. Instead, text that would appear between lines is moved to the next lower full line boundary. The control characters SO (ASCII code 017) and SI (ASCII code 016) are assumed to start and end text in an alternate character set. The character set (primary or alternate) associated with each printing character read is remembered. On output, SO and SI characters are gen- erated where necessary to maintain the correct treatment of each character. The command normally converts white space to tabs to shorten printing time. If the -h option is given, this conversion is suppressed. On input, the only control characters accepted are <space>, <backspace>, <tab>, <return>, <newline>, etc... The VT character is an alter- nate form of full reverse linefeed, included for compatibility with earlier programs of this type. All other non-printing characters are ignored. Options -b Assumes that the output device does not have backspacing. -f Suppresses moving half lines to the next full line. -h Suppresses conversion of white space to tabs. -p Forces through unchanged any unknown escape sequences that are found in its input. This option should be used with care. -x Suppresses conversion of white space to tabs (same as -h). Restrictions Cannot back up more than 128 lines. No more than 800 characters, including backspaces, on a line. See Also tbl(1), nroff(1) col(1)
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COL(1) General Commands Manual COL(1) NAME
col - filter reverse line feeds SYNOPSIS
col [ -bfh ] DESCRIPTION
Col reads the standard input and writes the standard output. It performs the line overlays implied by reverse line feeds (ESC-7 in ASCII) and by forward and reverse half line feeds (ESC-9 and ESC-8). Col is particularly useful for filtering multicolumn output made with the `.rt' command of nroff and output resulting from use of the tbl(1) preprocessor. Although col accepts half line motions in its input, it normally does not emit them on output. Instead, text that would appear between lines is moved to the next lower full line boundary. This treatment can be suppressed by the -f (fine) option; in this case the output from col may contain forward half line feeds (ESC-9), but will still never contain either kind of reverse line motion. If the -b option is given, col assumes that the output device in use is not capable of backspacing. In this case, if several characters are to appear in the same place, only the last one read will be taken. The control characters SO (ASCII code 017), and SI (016) are assumed to start and end text in an alternate character set. The character set (primary or alternate) associated with each printing character read is remembered; on output, SO and SI characters are generated where necessary to maintain the correct treatment of each character. If the -h option is given, col converts white space to tabs to shorten printing time. All control characters are removed from the input except space, backspace, tab, return, newline, ESC (033) followed by one of 7, 8, 9, SI, SO, and VT (013). This last character is an alternate form of full reverse line feed, for compatibility with some other hardware conven- tions. All other non-printing characters are ignored. SEE ALSO
troff(1), tbl(1) BUGS
Can't back up more than 128 lines. No more than 800 characters, including backspaces, on a line. 7th Edition May 16, 1986 COL(1)