NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | EXAMPLES | BUGS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AVAILABILITY | COLOPHON

COLUMN(1)                       User Commands                      COLUMN(1)

NAME         top

       column - columnate lists

SYNOPSIS         top

       column [options] [file...]

DESCRIPTION         top

       The column utility formats its input into multiple columns.  The util
       support three modes:
       columns are filled before rows
              This is the default mode (required by backward compatibility).
       rows are filed before columns
              This mode is enabled by option -x, --fillrows
       table  Determine the number of columns the input contains and create
              a table.  This mode is enabled by option -t, --table and
              columns formatting is possible to modify by --table-* options.
              Use this mode if not sure.
       Input is taken from file, or otherwise from standard input.  Empty
       lines are ignored.

OPTIONS         top

       The argument columns for --table-* options is comma separated list of
       the column names as defined by --table-columns or it's column number
       in order as specified by input. It's possible to mix names and
       numbers.
       -J, --json
              Use JSON output format to print the table, the option
              --table-columns is required and the option --table-name is
              recommended.
       -c, --output-width width
              Output is formatted to a width specified as number of
              characters. The original name of this option is --columns;
              this name is deprecated since v2.30. Note that input longer
              than width is not truncated by default.
       -o, --output-separator string
              Specify the columns delimiter for table output (default is two
              spaces).
       -s, --separator separators
              Specify the possible input item delimiters (default is
              whitespace).
       -t, --table
              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 --output-separator
              option.  Table output is useful for pretty-printing.
       -N, --table-columns names
              Specify the columns names by comma separated list of names.
              The names are used for the table header or to addres column in
              option arguments.
       -R, --table-right columns
              Right align text in the specified columns.
       -T, --table-truncate columns
              Specify columns where is allowed to truncate text when
              necessary, otherwise very long table entries may be printed on
              multiple lines.
       -E, --table-noextreme columns
              Specify columns where is possible to ignore unusually long
              (longer than average) cells when calculate column width.  The
              option has impact to the width calculation and table
              formatting, but the printed text is not affected.
              The option is used for the last visible column by default.
       -e, --table-header-repeat
              Print header line for each page.
       -W, --table-wrap columns
              Specify columns where is possible to use multi-line cell for
              long text when necessary.
       -H, --table-hide columns
              Don't print specified columns.
       -O, --table-order columns
              Specify columns order on output.
       -n, --table-name name
              Specify the table name used for JSON output. The defaout is
              "table".
       -r, --tree column
              Specify column to use tree-like output. Note that the circular
              dependencies and another anomalies in child and parent
              relation are silently ignored.
       -i, --tree-id column
              Specify column with line ID to create child-parent relation.
       -p, --tree-parent column
              Specify column with parent ID to create child-parent relation.
       -x, --fillrows
              Fill rows before filling columns.
       -V, --version
              Display version information and exit.
       -h, --help
              Display help text and exit.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       The environment variable COLUMNS is used to determine the size of the
       screen if no other information is available.

EXAMPLES         top

       Print fstab with header line and align number to the right:
       sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column --table --table-columns SOURCE,TARGET,TYPE,OPTIONS,PASS,FREQ --table-right PASS,FREQ
       Print a tree:
       echo -e '1 0 A\n2 1 AA\n3 1 AB\n4 2 AAA\n5 2 AAB' | column --tree-id 1 --tree-parent 2 --tree 3
       1  0  A
       2  1  |-AA
       4  2  | |-AAA
       5  2  | `-AAB
       3  1  `-AB

BUGS         top

       Version 2.23 changed the -s option to be non-greedy, for example:
       printf "a:b:c\n1::3\n" | column  -t -s ':'
       Old output:
       a  b  c
       1  3
       New output (since util-linux 2.23):
       a  b  c
       1     3

SEE ALSO         top

       colrm(1), ls(1), paste(1), sort(1)

HISTORY         top

       The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.

AVAILABILITY         top

       The column command is part of the util-linux package and is available
       from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the util-linux (a random collection of Linux
       utilities) project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩.  If you have a
       bug report for this manual page, send it to
       util-linux@vger.kernel.org.  This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository 
       ⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
       2017-07-05.  If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML ver‐
       sion of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date
       source for the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the
       information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original man‐
       ual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
util-linux                      January 2017                       COLUMN(1)

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