col(1)                              CLIX                              col(1)



  NAME

    col - Filters reverse linefeeds

  SYNOPSIS

    col [-b] [-f] [-p] [-x]

  FLAGS

    -b     Assumes an output device incapable of backspacing.  If two or more
           characters are to appear in the same place, only the last one read
           is output.

    -f     Keeps text that would appear between lines (accepted as half-line
           motions in the input) from being moved to the next lower full-line
           boundary in the output.  Output may contain forward half-linefeeds
           (ESC-9), but will not contain either kind of reverse line motion.

    -p     Causes unknown escape sequences to be output as regular characters,
           subject to overprinting from reverse line motions.  The use of this
           flag is highly discouraged unless the user is fully aware of the
           textual position of the escape sequences.

    -x     Converts white space to discreet spaces in the output rather than
           to tabs (the default).

  DESCRIPTION

    The col command reads from stdin and writes onto stdout, performing the
    line overlays implied by reverse linefeeds (ASCII code ESC-7), and by
    forward and reverse half-linefeeds (ESC-9 and ESC-8).  The col command is
    particularly useful for filtering multicolumn output made with the .rt
    command of nroff and output resulting from use of the tbl preprocessor.

    Although col accepts half-line motions in its input, it normally does not
    emit them on output.  Instead, text that would appear between lines is
    moved to the next lower full-line boundary.

    The ASCII control characters SO (\017) and SI (\016) are assumed by col to
    start and end text in an alternate character set.  The character set to
    which each input character belongs is remembered, and on output SI and SO
    characters are generated as appropriate, to ensure that each character is
    printed in the correct character set.

    On input, the only control characters accepted are space, backspace, tab,
    return, newline, SI, SO, VT (\013), and ESC followed by 7, 8, or 9.  The
    VT character is an alternate form of full reverse linefeed, included for
    compatibility with some earlier programs of this type.  All other
    nonprinting characters are ignored, and col also ignores any escape
    sequences unknown to it that are found in its input.



  2/94 - Intergraph Corporation                                              1

  col(1)                              CLIX                              col(1)



  EXAMPLES

    cat frank.1|col|troff


  NOTES

    The input format accepted by col matches the output produced by nroff with
    either the -T37 or -Tlp flags.  Use -T37 (and the -f flag of col) if the
    ultimate disposition of the output of col will be a device that can
    interpret half-line motions; otherwise, use -Tlp.

    The col command cannot back up more than 128 lines.

    The col command allows at most 800 characters, including backspaces, on a
    line.

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

  DIAGNOSTICS

    The following message indicates that col could not allocate enough memory:

    col: no storage


  EXIT VALUES

    The col command returns a value of 2 if an error occurs.

  RELATED INFORMATION

    Commands:  nroff(1), tbl(1)



















  2                                              Intergraph Corporation - 2/94