fmt(1)                                                        fmt(1)


       NAME
             fmt - simple text formatters

       SYNOPSIS
             fmt [-cs] [-w width] [file . . . ]

       DESCRIPTION
             fmt  is a simple text formatter that fills and joins lines to
             produce output lines of (up to) the number of characters
             specified in the -w width option.  The default width is 72.
             fmt concatenates the inputfiles listed as arguments.  If none
             are given, fmt formats text from the standard input.

             Blank lines are preserved in the output, as is the spacing
             between words.  fmt does not fill lines beginning with a ``.''
             (dot), for compatibility with nroff.  Nor does it fill lines
             starting with ``From:''.

             Indentation is preserved in the output, and input lines with
             differing indentation are not joined (unless -c is used).

             fmt can also be used as an in-line text filter for vi(1); the
             vi command:
                   !}fmt

             reformats the text between the cursor location and the end of
             the paragraph.

       OPTIONS
             -c          Crown margin mode.  Preserve the indentation of
                         the first two lines within a paragraph, and align
                         the left margin of each subsequent line with that
                         of the second line.  This is useful for tagged
                         paragraphs.

             -s          Split lines only.  Do not join short lines to form
                         longer ones.  This prevents sample lines of code,
                         and other such formatted text, from being unduly
                         combined.

             -w width    Fill output lines to up to width columns.

       REFERENCES
             nroff(1BSD), vi(1)




                           Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 1

      fmt(1)                                                        fmt(1)


      NOTICES
            The -w width option is acceptable for BSD compatibility, but
            it may go away in future releases.













































                          Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 2