COL(1)                  GENIX Programmer's Manual                  COL(1)



      NAME
           col - filter reverse line feeds

      SYNOPSIS
           col [-bfx]

      DESCRIPTION
           Col reads the standard input and writes  the  standard  output.   It
           performs  the  line overlays implied by reverse line feeds (ESC-7 in
           ASCII) and by forward and reverse half line feeds (ESC-9 and ESC-8).
           Col  is  particularly  useful  for filtering multicolumn output made
           with the `.rt' command of nroff and output resulting from use of the
           tbl(1) 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.   This
           treatment  can  be  suppressed by the -f (fine) option; in this case
           the output from col may contain forward half line feeds (ESC-9), but
           will still never contain either kind of reverse line motion.

           If the -b option is given, col assumes that the output device in use
           is  not capable of backspacing.  In this case, if several characters
           are to appear in the same place, only the  last  one  read  will  be
           taken.

           The control characters SO (ASCII code 017), and SI (016) are assumed
           to  start and end text in an alternate character set.  The character
           set (primary or alternate) associated with each  printing  character
           read  is  remembered;  on output, SO and SI characters are generated
           where necessary to maintain the correct treatment of each character.

           Col normally converts white space to tabs to shorten printing  time.
           If the -x option is given, this conversion is suppressed.

           All control characters are removed  from  the  input  except  space,
           backspace,  tab, return, newline, ESC (033) followed by one of 7, 8,
           9, SI, SO, and VT (013).  This last character is an  alternate  form
           of  full  reverse  line  feed,  for  compatibility  with  some other
           hardware  conventions.   All  other  non-printing   characters   are
           ignored.

      SEE ALSO
           troff(1), tbl(1), greek(1)

      BUGS
           Can't back up more than 128 lines.
           No more than 800 characters, including backspaces, on a line.







      Printed 11/16/83                                                        1