fold(1) CLIX fold(1)
NAME
fold - Folds lines from input files
SYNOPSIS
fold [-bs] [-w width] [file...]
FLAGS
-b Counts the width in bytes rather than column positions. The
input files specified with this flag are text files, except
that the lines are not limited to LINE_MAX bytes in length.
-s Breaks the line into segments. If a segment of a line contains
a blank space within the first width column positions or bytes,
the line is broken after the last blank space meeting the width
constraints. If no blank space meets the width requirements,
the -s flag has no effect for that output segment of the input
line.
-w width Specifies the maximum line length, in column positions (or
bytes, if the -b flag is used). The results are unspecified if
the width is not a positive decimal number. The default value
is 80.
DESCRIPTION
The fold command folds lines from input files, breaking the lines to have
a maximum of width column positions or bytes (if the -b flag is used).
Lines are broken by the insertion of a <newline> character such that each
output line (called a segment) is the maximum width possible that does not
exceed the specified number of column positions or bytes.
If no input file is specified, the standard input is used. The input
files specified with the -b flag are text files, except that the lines are
not limited to LINE_MAX bytes in length. If the -b flag is not used, the
input files are text files.
The standard output is a file containing a sequence of characters whose
order is preserved from the input file(s), possibly with some inserted
<newline> characters.
If the <Return> , <Backspace> , or <Tab> characters are encountered in the
input, and the -b flag is not specified, they are specially treated as
explained in the following list:
<Return> The current count of the line width is set to zero. The
fold utility does not insert a <newline> character
immediately before or after any <Return> character.
2/94 - Intergraph Corporation 1
fold(1) CLIX fold(1)
<Backspace> The current count of the line width is decremented by one.
The count will never become negative. The fold utility does
not insert a <newline> character immediately before or after
any <Backspace> character.
<Tab> Each <Tab> character advances the column position pointer to
the next tab stop. Tab stops are at each column position n
such that n modulo 8 equals 1.
Environment Variables
The following environment variables affect the execution of the fold
command:
LANG Determines the locale to use for the locale categories when
both LC_ALL and the corresponding environment variable
(beginning with LC_) do not specify a locale.
LC_ALL Determines the locale to be used to override any values for
the locale categories specified by the settings of LANG or
any environment variables beginning with LC_.
LC_CTYPE Determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte
versus multibyte characters in arguments and input files)
and for the determination of the width in column positions
each character would occupy on a constant width font output
device.
LC_MESSAGES Determines the language in which messages are written.
EXAMPLES
This example submits the file bigfile with 132-character lines to the
printer.
fold -w 132 bigfile | lp
NOTES
A line wil not be broken in the middle of a character.
The behavior is undefined if width is less than the number of columns that
any single character of the input occupies.
EXIT VALUES
The fold command returns a value of 0 if successful. If unsuccessful, it
returns a positive nonzero value.
2 Intergraph Corporation - 2/94