8.5.3 treatment options

Specify how to lay out the text.

spread option.

This is the “maximum spread added to column width” option. This option takes a number argument ‘num’. Use this option to specify exactly how many characters may be added to each column. It allows you to prevent columns from becoming too far apart. Without this option, ‘columns’ will attempt to widen columns to fill the full width.

fill option.

This is the “fill lines with input” option.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

• must not appear in combination with any of the following options: spread, col_width, by_columns.

Instead of columnizing the input text, fill the output lines with the input lines. Blank lines on input will cause a blank line in the output, unless the output is sorted. With sorted output, blank lines are ignored.

indent option (-I).

This is the “line prefix or indentation” option. This option takes a string argument ‘l-pfx’. If a number, then this many spaces will be inserted at the start of every line. Otherwise, it is a line prefix that will be inserted at the start of every line.

first-indent option.

This is the “first line prefix” option. This option takes a string argument ‘l-pfx’.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

• must appear in combination with the following options: indent.

If a number, then this many spaces will be inserted at the start of the first line. Otherwise, it is a line prefix that will be inserted at the start of that line. If its length exceeds "indent", then it will be emitted on a line by itself, suffixed by any line separation string. For example:

$ columns --first='#define TABLE' -c 2 -I4 --line=' \' <<_EOF_
one
two
three
four
_EOF_
#define TABLE \
    one   two \
    three four

format option (-f).

This is the “formatting string for each input” option. This option takes a string argument ‘fmt-str’. If you need to reformat each input text, the argument to this option is interpreted as an sprintf(3) format that is used to produce each output entry.

separation option (-S).

This is the “separation string - follows all but last” option. This option takes a string argument ‘sep-str’. Use this option if, for example, you wish a comma to appear after each entry except the last.

line-separation option.

This is the “string at end of all lines but last” option. This option takes a string argument ‘sep-str’. Use this option if, for example, you wish a backslash to appear at the end of every line, except the last.

ending option.

This is the “string at end of last line” option. This option takes a string argument ‘end-str’. This option puts the specified string at the end of the output.

This document was generated by Bruce Korb on August 21, 2015 using texi2html 1.82.