NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     column -- columnate lists

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     column [-tx] [-c columns] [-s sep] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The column utility formats its input into multiple columns.  Rows are
     filled before columns.  Input is taken from file operands, or, by
     default, from the standard input.	Empty lines are ignored.

     The options are as follows:

     -c      Output is formatted for a display columns wide.

     -s      Specify a set of characters to be used to delimit columns for the
	     -t option.

     -t      Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a
	     table.  Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or
	     with the characters supplied using the -s option.	Useful for
	     pretty-printing displays.

     -x      Fill columns before filling rows.

DIAGNOSTICS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The column utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

ENVIRONMENT    [Toc]    [Back]

     COLUMNS  The environment variable COLUMNS is used to determine the size
	      of the screen if no other information is available.

EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]

	   (printf "PERM LINKS OWNER GROUP SIZE MONTH DAY " ; \
	   printf "HH:MM/YEAR NAME\n" ; \
	   ls -l | sed 1d) | column -t

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     colrm(1), ls(1), paste(1), sort(1)

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.


FreeBSD 5.2.1			 June 6, 1993			 FreeBSD 5.2.1