DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

Search: Section:  

fmt(1)                 DragonFly General Commands Manual                fmt(1)


NAME

       fmt - format text


SYNOPSIS

       fmt [-v] [-l length] [-t tabs] [--] [file ... ]

       fmt formats text by filling lines to roughly the same length.


OPTIONS

       -v     The -v option instructs fmt to print its version number and
              exit.

       -l length
              The -l option sets the target length of output lines to length
              columns.  The default is 70 columns.

       -t tabs
              The -t option sets the number of spaces corresponding to each
              tab stop to tabs.  The default is 8 spaces.

       --     The -- (double dash) option indicates the end of options.


DESCRIPTION

       fmt formats each file in turn, writing the result to the standard
       output.  If no files are specified or a file is - (dash), fmt formats
       the standard input.

       fmt adjusts horizontal white space and breaks and joins lines at
       horizontal white space in an attempt to create output lines that are as
       long as possible but no longer than length columns.  fmt preserves
       leading horizontal white space, empty lines, and lines that consist
       only of horizontal white space, but compresses other horizontal white
       space to a single space character.  fmt will not break words, so
       extremely long words in the input may give lines that are longer than
       length columns in the output.

       fmt expects its input to be Unicode characters in utf(4) form.


EXAMPLES

       File file1 contains:

            The Unicode Standard represents its characters in 16 bits;
            UTF-8 represents such values in an 8-bit byte stream.
            Throughout this manual,
            UTF-8 is shortened to UTF.

       To reformat this to about 70 columns, enter:

            fmt file1 >file2

       file2 will now contain:

            The Unicode Standard represents its characters in 16 bits; UTF-8
            represents such values in an 8-bit byte stream. Throughout this
            manual, UTF-8 is shortened to UTF.


SEE ALSO

       expand(1) unexpand(1) utf(4)


BUGS

       None known.


SOURCES

       http://pobox.com/~Alan.Watson/software.html


AUTHOR

       Alan Watson (Alan.Watson@pobox.com).

                               1.6.0 of 97/02/25                        fmt(1)

Search: Section: