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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | HISTORY | SEE ALSO | REPORTING BUGS | AVAILABILITY |
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COL(1) User Commands COL(1)
col - filter reverse line feeds from input
col options
col filters out reverse (and half-reverse) line feeds so the
output is in the correct order, with only forward and half-forward
line feeds. It also replaces any whitespace characters with tabs
where possible. This can be useful in processing the output of
nroff(1) and tbl(1).
col reads from standard input and writes to standard output.
-b, --no-backspaces
Do not output any backspaces, printing only the last character
written to each column position.
-f, --fine
Permit half-forward line feeds. Normally characters destined
for a half-line boundary are printed on the following line.
-h, --tabs
Output tabs instead of multiple spaces.
-l, --lines number
Buffer at least number lines in memory. By default, 128 lines
are buffered.
-p, --pass
Force unknown control sequences to be passed through
unchanged. Normally col will filter out any control sequences
other than those recognized and interpreted by itself, which
are listed below.
-x, --spaces
Output multiple spaces instead of tabs.
-H, --help
Display help text and exit.
-V, --version
Display version and exit.
The col utility conforms to the Single UNIX Specification, Version
2. The -l option is an extension to the standard.
The control sequences for carriage motion that col understands and
their decimal values are listed in the following table:
ESC-7
reverse line feed (escape then 7)
ESC-8
half reverse line feed (escape then 8)
ESC-9
half forward line feed (escape then 9)
backspace
moves back one column (8); ignored in the first column
newline
forward line feed (10); also does carriage return
carriage return
(13)
shift in
shift to normal character set (15)
shift out
shift to alternate character set (14)
space
moves forward one column (32)
tab
moves forward to next tab stop (9)
vertical tab
reverse line feed (11)
All unrecognized control characters and escape sequences are
discarded.
col keeps track of the character set as characters are read and
makes sure the character set is correct when they are output.
If the input attempts to back up to the last flushed line, col
will display a warning message.
A col command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
expand(1), nroff(1), tbl(1)
For bug reports, use the issue tracker
<https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.
The col command is part of the util-linux package which can be
downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
<https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. This page is
part of the util-linux (a random collection of Linux utilities)
project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have a
bug report for this manual page, send it to
[email protected]. This page was obtained from the
project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
2025-08-11. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that
was found in the repository was 2025-08-05.) If you discover any
rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a
mail to [email protected]
util-linux 2.42-start-521-ec46 2025-08-09 COL(1)
Pages that refer to this page: colcrt(1)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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