COLUMN(1)                  OpenBSD Reference Manual                  COLUMN(1)

NAME
     column - columnate lists



SYNOPSIS
     column [-tx] [-c columns] [-s sep] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The column utility formats its input into multiple columns.  Rows are
     filled before columns.  Input is taken from file operands, or, by de-
     fault, from the standard input.  Empty lines are ignored.

     The options are as follows:

     -c columns
             Output is formatted for a display columns wide.

     -s sep  Specify a set of characters to be used to delimit columns for the
             -t option.

     -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 -s option.  Useful for
             pretty-printing displays.

     -x      Fill columns before filling rows.

     The column utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.

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

EXAMPLES
           (printf "PERM LINKS OWNER GROUP SIZE MONTH DAY HH:MM/YEAR NAME\n" ;
           ls -l | sed 1d) | column -t

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

HISTORY
     The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.

OpenBSD 2.6                      June 6, 1993                                1