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.\"     @(#)column.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.Dd June 6, 1993
.Os
.Dt COLUMN 1
.Sh NAME
.Nm column
.Nd columnate lists
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm column
.Op Fl tx
.Op Fl c Ar columns
.Op Fl s Ar sep
.Op Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm column
utility formats its input into multiple columns.
Rows are filled before columns.
Input is taken from
.Ar file
operands, or, by default, from the standard input.
Empty lines are ignored.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl c
Output is formatted for a display
.Ar columns
wide.
.It Fl s
Specify a set of characters to be used to delimit columns for the
.Fl t
option.
.It Fl t
Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a table.
Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or with the characters
supplied using the
.Fl s
option.
Useful for pretty-printing displays.
.It Fl x
Fill columns before filling rows.
.El
.Pp
.Nm Column
exits 0 on success, >0 if an error occurred.
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width COLUMNS
.It Ev COLUMNS
The environment variable
.Ev COLUMNS
is used to determine the size of
the screen if no other information is available.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
.Dl (printf \&"PERM LINKS OWNER SIZE MONTH DAY HH:MM/YEAR NAME\en\&"\ \&;\ \&\e
.Dl ls -l \&| sed 1d) \&| column -t
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr colrm 1 ,
.Xr ls 1 ,
.Xr paste 1 ,
.Xr sort 1
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in 
.Bx 4.3 Reno .
