fmt(1) fmt(1)
NAME [Toc] [Back]
fmt - format text
SYNOPSIS [Toc] [Back]
fmt [-cs] [-w width] [file...]
DESCRIPTION [Toc] [Back]
The fmt command is a simple text formatter that fills and joins lines
to produce output lines of (up to) the number of characters specified
in the -w width option. The default width is 72. fmt concatenates
the file arguments. If none are given, fmt formats text from the
standard input.
Blank lines are preserved in the output, as is the spacing between
words. fmt does not fill lines beginning with a period (.), for
compatibility with nroff. Nor does it fill lines starting with From:.
Indentation is preserved in the output and input lines with differing
indentation are not joined (unless -c is used).
fmt can also be used as an in-line text filter for vi; the vi command:
!}fmt
reformats the text between the cursor location and the end of the
paragraph.
Options [Toc] [Back]
fmt recognizes the following options:
-c Crown margin mode. Preserve the indentation of the first
two lines within a paragraph and align the left margin of
each subsequent line with that of the second line. This is
useful for tagged paragraphs.
-s Split lines only. Do not join short lines to form longer
ones. This prevents sample lines of code, and other such
formatted text, from being unduly combined.
-w Fill output lines to up to width columns.
WARNINGS [Toc] [Back]
The -w width option is acceptable for BSD compatibility, but it may go
away in future releases.
SEE ALSO [Toc] [Back]
nroff(1), vi(1).
Hewlett-Packard Company - 1 - HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003 [ Back ] |
