newform(1) DG/UX R4.11 newform(1)
NAME
newform - change the format of a text file
SYNOPSIS
newform [-s] [-itabspec] [-otabspec] [-bn] [-en] [-pn] [-an] [-f]
[-cchar] [-ln] [files]
DESCRIPTION
Newform reads lines from the named files, or the standard input if no
input file is named, and reproduces the lines on the standard output.
Lines are reformatted in accordance with command line options in
effect.
Except for -s, command line options may appear in any order, may be
repeated, and may be intermingled with the optional files. Command
line options are processed in the order specified. This means that
option sequences like "-e15 -l60" will yield results different from
"-l60 -e15." Options are applied to all files on the command line.
-itabspec Input tab specification: expands tabs to spaces, according
to the tab specifications given. Tabspec recognizes all
tab specification forms described in tabs(1). In addition,
tabspec may be --, in which newform assumes that the tab
specification is to be found in the first line read from
the standard input (see fspec(4)). If no tabspec is given,
tabspec defaults to -8. A tabspec of -0 expects no tabs;
if any are found, they are treated as -1.
-otabspec Output tab specification: replaces spaces by tabs,
according to the tab specifications given. The tab
specifications are the same as for -itabspec. If no
tabspec is given, tabspec defaults to -8. A tabspec of -0
means that no spaces will be converted to tabs on output.
-ln Set the effective line length to n characters. If n is not
entered, -l defaults to 72. The default line length
without the -l option is 80 characters. Note that tabs and
backspaces are considered to be one character (use -i to
expand tabs to spaces).
-bn Truncate n characters from the beginning of the line when
the line length is greater than the effective line length
(see -ln). Default is to truncate the number of characters
necessary to obtain the effective line length. The default
value is used when -b with no n is used. This option can
be used to delete the sequence numbers from a COBOL program
as follows:
newform -l1 -b7 file-name
The -l1 must be used to set the effective line length
shorter than any existing line in the file so that the -b
option is activated.
-en Same as -bn except that characters are truncated from the
end of the line.
-cchar Change the prefix/append character to char. Default
character for char is a space.
-pn Prefix n characters (see -ck) to the beginning of a line
when the line length is less than the effective line
length. Default is to prefix the number of characters
necessary to obtain the effective line length.
-an Same as -pn except characters are appended to the end of a
line.
-f Write the tab specification format line on the standard
output before any other lines are output. The tab
specification format line which is printed will correspond
to the format specified in the last -o option. If no -o
option is specified, the line which is printed will contain
the default specification of -8.
-s Shears off leading characters on each line up to the first
tab and places up to 8 of the sheared characters at the end
of the line. If more than 8 characters (not counting the
first tab) are sheared, the eighth character is replaced by
a * and any characters to the right of it are discarded.
The first tab is always discarded.
An error message and program exit will occur if this option
is used on a file without a tab on each line. The
characters sheared off are saved internally until all other
options specified are applied to that line. The characters
are then added at the end of the processed line.
For example, to convert a file with leading digits, one or
more tabs, and text on each line, to a file beginning with
the text, all tabs after the first expanded to spaces,
padded with spaces out to column 72 (or truncated to column
72), and the leading digits placed starting at column 73,
the command would be:
newform -s -i -l -a -e filename
International Features
newform can perform processing of characters from supplementary code
sets as well as ASCII characters.
Options:
-bn n must be in columns, not the number of characters.
-en n must be in columns, not the number of characters.
-pn n must be in columns, not the number of characters.
-an n must be in columns, not the number of characters.
-ln n must be in columns, not the number of characters.
-cchar The prefix/append character char must be one single-byte
character.
EXAMPLES
$ newform -l31 -b19 -e1 newformfile
This command will read the file "newform_file" and reformat it to the
given specifications: set output line length to 31 characters and to
achieve this, truncate 19 characters from the front of each line and
truncate 1 character from the end of each line, then display the
result on the standard output. Other options allow for the expanding
of tabs and padding of lines to a new length.
DIAGNOSTICS
All diagnostics are fatal.
usage: ... Newform was called with a bad option.
not -s format There was no tab on one line.
can't open file Self-explanatory.
internal line too long A line exceeds 512 characters after
being expanded in the internal work
buffer.
tabspec in error A tab specification is incorrectly
formatted, or specified tab stops are
not ascending.
tabspec indirection illegal A tabspec read from a file (or standard
input) may not contain a tabspec
referencing another file (or standard
input).
EXIT CODES
0 - normal execution
1 - for any error
SEE ALSO
csplit(1), tabs(1).
fspec(4).
BUGS
Newform normally only keeps track of physical characters; however,
for the -i and -o options, newform will keep track of backspaces in
order to line up tabs in the appropriate logical columns.
Newform will not prompt the user if a tabspec is to be read from the
standard input (by use of -i-- or -o--).
If the -f option is used, and the last -o option specified was -o--,
and was preceded by either a -o-- or a -i--, the tab specification
format line will be incorrect.
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