COL(1,C)                    AIX Commands Reference                     COL(1,C)



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
col



PURPOSE

Processes text having reverse line feeds and forward and reverse half-line
feeds for output to standard output.

SYNTAX


       +-----------+
col ---| +-------+ |---|
       +-| -b -p |-+
        ^| -f    ||
        |+-------+|
        +---------+


Note:  This command does not have MBCS support.

DESCRIPTION

The col command reads from standard input and writes to standard output.  It
performs the line overlays implied by reverse line feeds (ASCII ESC-7), and by
forward and reverse half-line feeds (ASCII ESC-9 and ASCII ESC-8).  The col
command is particularly useful for filtering multi-column output made by the
nroff.rt command and output from the tbl command.  The input format accepted by
the col command matches the output format produced by the -T37 or by the -Tlp
flag in the nroff command.  Use the nroff-T37 and the col -f commands if the
output is being sent to a device that can interpret half-line motions; use the
nroff-Tlp command.

The col command assumes that the ASCII control characters SO (\017) and SI
(\016) begin and end text in an alternate character set.  The col command keeps
track of the character set each input character belongs to, and, on output,
generates SI and SO characters as appropriate to ensure that each character is
printed in the correct character set.

On input, the col command accepts only the control characters for space,
backspace, tab, return, the new-line character, SI, SO, VT, and ESC-7, 8, or 9.
VT (\013) is an alternate form of full reverse line feed included for
compatibility with some earlier programs of this type.  The col command ignores
all other non-printing characters.









Processed November 8, 1990         COL(1,C)                                   1

COL(1,C)                    AIX Commands Reference                     COL(1,C)



Notes:

  1. The maximum number of lines that can be backed up is 128.

  2. Up to 800 characters, including backspaces, are allowed on a line.  If you
    are using a system that supports a multibyte character set, the
    800-character limit can be reduced by as much as 50%, depending on the
    character code set being used.

  3. Local vertical motions that would result in backing up over the first line
    are ignored.  As a result, the first line must not contain any
    superscripts.

FLAGS

-b    Assumes that the output device in use is not capable of backspacing.  In
      this case, if two or more characters are to appear in the same position,
      only the last one read appears in the output.

-f    Suppresses the default treatment of half-line motions in the input.
      Normally, the col command does not emit half-line motions on output,
      although it does accept them in its input.  With this flag, output may
      contain forward half-line feeds (ESC-9) but not reverse line feeds (ESC-7
      or ESC-8).

-p    Displays unknown escape sequences as characters, subject to overprinting
      from reverse line motions.  Normally, the col command ignores them.  You
      should be fully aware of the textual position of escape sequences before
      you use this flag.

RELATED INFORMATION

See the following commands:  "nroff, troff" and "tbl."

See the discussion of col in the Text Formatting Guide.




















Processed November 8, 1990         COL(1,C)                                   2