1PR(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual PR(1P)
2
6 This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
7 implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
8 Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
9 not be implemented on Linux.
10
12 pr - print files
13
15 pr [+page][-column][-adFmrt][-e[char][ gap]][-h header][-i[char][gap]]
16 [-l lines][-n[char][width]][-o offset][-s[char]][-w width][-fp]
18 [file...]
19
21 The pr utility is a printing and pagination filter. If multiple input
22 files are specified, each shall be read, formatted, and written to
23 standard output. By default, the input shall be separated into 66-line
24 pages, each with:
25 * A 5-line header that includes the page number, date, time, and the
27 pathname of the file
28 * A 5-line trailer consisting of blank lines
30 If standard output is associated with a terminal, diagnostic messages
32 shall be deferred until the pr utility has completed processing.
33 When options specifying multi-column output are specified, output text
35 columns shall be of equal width; input lines that do not fit into a
36 text column shall be truncated. By default, text columns shall be sepa‐
37 rated with at least one <blank>.
38
40 The pr utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
41 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines, except
42 that: the page option has a '+' delimiter; page and column can be
43 multi-digit numbers; some of the option-arguments are optional; and
44 some of the option-arguments cannot be specified as separate arguments
45 from the preceding option letter. In particular, the -s option does not
46 allow the option letter to be separated from its argument, and the
47 options -e, -i, and -n require that both arguments, if present, not be
48 separated from the option letter.
49 The following options shall be supported. In the following option
51 descriptions, column, lines, offset, page, and width are positive deci‐
52 mal integers; gap is a non-negative decimal integer.
53 +page Begin output at page number page of the formatted input.
55 -column
57 Produce multi-column output that is arranged in column columns
58 (the default shall be 1) and is written down each column in the
59 order in which the text is received from the input file. This
60 option should not be used with -m. The options -e and -i shall
61 be assumed for multiple text-column output. Whether or not text
62 columns are produced with identical vertical lengths is unspeci‐
63 fied, but a text column shall never exceed the length of the
64 page (see the -l option). When used with -t, use the minimum
65 number of lines to write the output.
66 -a Modify the effect of the - column option so that the columns are
68 filled across the page in a round-robin order (for example, when
69 column is 2, the first input line heads column 1, the second
70 heads column 2, the third is the second line in column 1, and so
71 on).
72 -d Produce output that is double-spaced; append an extra <newline>
74 following every <newline> found in the input.
75 -e[char][gap]
77 Expand each input <tab> to the next greater column position
79 specified by the formula n* gap+1, where n is an integer > 0. If
80 gap is zero or is omitted, it shall default to 8. All <tab>s in
81 the input shall be expanded into the appropriate number of
82 <space>s. If any non-digit character, char, is specified, it
83 shall be used as the input <tab>.
84 -f Use a <form-feed> for new pages, instead of the default behavior
86 that uses a sequence of <newline>s. Pause before beginning the
87 first page if the standard output is associated with a terminal.
88 -F Use a <form-feed> for new pages, instead of the default behavior
90 that uses a sequence of <newline>s.
91 -h header
93 Use the string header to replace the contents of the file oper‐
94 and in the page header.
95 -i[char][gap]
97 In output, replace multiple <space>s with <tab>s wherever two or
98 more adjacent <space>s reach column positions gap+1, 2* gap+1,
99 3* gap+1, and so on. If gap is zero or is omitted, default tab
100 settings at every eighth column position shall be assumed. If
101 any non-digit character, char, is specified, it shall be used as
102 the output <tab>.
103 -l lines
105 Override the 66-line default and reset the page length to lines.
106 If lines is not greater than the sum of both the header and
107 trailer depths (in lines), the pr utility shall suppress both
108 the header and trailer, as if the -t option were in effect.
109 -m Merge files. Standard output shall be formatted so the pr util‐
111 ity writes one line from each file specified by a file operand,
112 side by side into text columns of equal fixed widths, in terms
113 of the number of column positions. Implementations shall sup‐
114 port merging of at least nine file operands.
115 -n[char][width]
117 Provide width-digit line numbering (default for width shall be
119 5). The number shall occupy the first width column positions of
120 each text column of default output or each line of -m output. If
121 char (any non-digit character) is given, it shall be appended to
122 the line number to separate it from whatever follows (default
123 for char is a <tab>).
124 -o offset
126 Each line of output shall be preceded by offset <space>s. If the
127 -o option is not specified, the default offset shall be zero.
128 The space taken is in addition to the output line width (see the
129 -w option below).
130 -p Pause before beginning each page if the standard output is
132 directed to a terminal ( pr shall write an <alert> to standard
133 error and wait for a <carriage-return> to be read on /dev/tty).
134 -r Write no diagnostic reports on failure to open files.
136 -s[char]
138 Separate text columns by the single character char instead of by
139 the appropriate number of <space>s (default for char shall be
140 <tab>).
141 -t Write neither the five-line identifying header nor the five-line
143 trailer usually supplied for each page. Quit writing after the
144 last line of each file without spacing to the end of the page.
145 -w width
147 Set the width of the line to width column positions for multiple
148 text-column output only. If the -w option is not specified and
149 the -s option is not specified, the default width shall be 72.
150 If the -w option is not specified and the -s option is speci‐
151 fied, the default width shall be 512.
152 For single column output, input lines shall not be truncated.
154
157 The following operand shall be supported:
158 file A pathname of a file to be written. If no file operands are
160 specified, or if a file operand is '-', the standard input shall
161 be used.
162
165 The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are speci‐
166 fied, or if a file operand is '-' . See the INPUT FILES section.
167
169 The input files shall be text files.
170 The file /dev/tty shall be used to read responses required by the -p
172 option.
173
175 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of pr:
176 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
178 that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
179 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
180 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
181 to determine the values of locale categories.)
182 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
184 the other internationalization variables.
185 LC_CTYPE
187 Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
188 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
189 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files)
190 and which characters are defined as printable (character class
191 print). Non-printable characters are still written to standard
192 output, but are not counted for the purpose for column-width and
193 line-length calculations.
194 LC_MESSAGES
196 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
197 and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
198 LC_TIME
200 Determine the format of the date and time for use in writing
201 header lines.
202 NLSPATH
204 Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
205 LC_MESSAGES .
206 TZ Determine the timezone used to calculate date and time strings
208 written in header lines. If TZ is unset or null, an unspecified
209 default timezone shall be used.
210
213 If pr receives an interrupt while writing to a terminal, it shall flush
214 all accumulated error messages to the screen before terminating.
215
217 The pr utility output shall be a paginated version of the original file
218 (or files). This pagination shall be accomplished using either <form-
219 feed>s or a sequence of <newline>s, as controlled by the -F or -f
220 option. Page headers shall be generated unless the -t option is speci‐
221 fied. The page headers shall be of the form:
222 "\n\n%s %s Page %d\n\n\n", <output of date>, <file>, <page number>
225 In the POSIX locale, the <output of date> field, representing the date
227 and time of last modification of the input file (or the current date
228 and time if the input file is standard input), shall be equivalent to
229 the output of the following command as it would appear if executed at
230 the given time:
231 date "+%b %e %H:%M %Y"
234 without the trailing <newline>, if the page being written is from stan‐
236 dard input. If the page being written is not from standard input, in
237 the POSIX locale, the same format shall be used, but the time used
238 shall be the modification time of the file corresponding to file
239 instead of the current time. When the LC_TIME locale category is not
240 set to the POSIX locale, a different format and order of presentation
241 of this field may be used.
242 If the standard input is used instead of a file operand, the <file>
244 field shall be replaced by a null string.
245 If the -h option is specified, the <file> field shall be replaced by
247 the header argument.
248
250 The standard error shall be used for diagnostic messages and for alert‐
251 ing the terminal when -p is specified.
252
254 None.
255
257 None.
258
260 The following exit values shall be returned:
261 0 Successful completion.
263 >0 An error occurred.
265
268 Default.
269 The following sections are informative.
271
273 None.
274
276 1. Print a numbered list of all files in the current directory:
277 ls -a | pr -n -h "Files in $(pwd)."
280 2. Print file1 and file2 as a double-spaced, three-column listing
282 headed by "file list'':
283 pr -3d -h "file list" file1 file2
286 3. Write file1 on file2, expanding tabs to columns 10, 19, 28, ...:
288 pr -e9 -t <file1 >file2
291
293 This utility is one of those that does not follow the Utility Syntax
294 Guidelines because of its historical origins. The standard developers
295 could have added new options that obeyed the guidelines (and marked the
296 old options obsolescent) or devised an entirely new utility; there are
297 examples of both actions in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.
298 Because of its widespread use by historical applications, the standard
299 developers decided to exempt this version of pr from many of the guide‐
300 lines.
301 Implementations are required to accept option-arguments to the -h, -l,
303 -o, and -w options whether presented as part of the same argument or as
304 a separate argument to pr, as suggested by the Utility Syntax Guide‐
305 lines. The -n and -s options, however, are specified as in historical
306 practice because they are frequently specified without their optional
307 arguments. If a <blank> were allowed before the option-argument in
308 these cases, a file operand could mistakenly be interpreted as an
309 option-argument in historical applications.
310 The text about the minimum number of lines in multi-column output was
312 included to ensure that a best effort is made in balancing the length
313 of the columns. There are known historical implementations in which,
314 for example, 60-line files are listed by pr -2 as one column of 56
315 lines and a second of 4. Although this is not a problem when a full
316 page with headers and trailers is produced, it would be relatively use‐
317 less when used with -t.
318 Historical implementations of the pr utility have differed in the
320 action taken for the -f option. BSD uses it as described here for the
321 -F option; System V uses it to change trailing <newline>s on each page
322 to a <form-feed> and, if standard output is a TTY device, sends an
323 <alert> to standard error and reads a line from /dev/tty before the
324 first page. There were strong arguments from both sides of this issue
325 concerning historical practice and as a result the -F option was added.
326 XSI-conformant systems support the System V historical actions for the
327 -f option.
328 The <output of date> field in the -l format is specified only for the
330 POSIX locale. As noted, the format can be different in other locales.
331 No mechanism for defining this is present in this volume of
332 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, as the appropriate vehicle is a message catalog;
333 that is, the format should be specified as a "message".
334
336 None.
337
339 expand, lp
340
342 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
343 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
344 -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
345 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
346 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
347 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
348 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
349 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
350 at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
351IEEE/The Open Group 2003 PR(1P)