1COLUMN(1)                        User Commands                       COLUMN(1)
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NAME

6       column - columnate lists
7

SYNOPSIS

9       column [options] [file ...]
10

DESCRIPTION

12       The column utility formats its input into multiple columns. The util
13       support three modes:
14
15       columns are filled before rows
16           This is the default mode (required by backward compatibility).
17
18       rows are filled before columns
19           This mode is enabled by option -x, --fillrows
20
21       table
22           Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a
23           table. This mode is enabled by option -t, --table and columns
24           formatting is possible to modify by --table-* options. Use this
25           mode if not sure.
26
27       Input is taken from file, or otherwise from standard input. Empty lines
28       are ignored and all invalid multibyte sequences are encoded by x<hex>
29       convention.
30

OPTIONS

32       The argument columns for --table-* options is a comma separated list of
33       the column names as defined by --table-columns or it’s column number in
34       order as specified by input. It’s possible to mix names and numbers.
35       The special placeholder '0' (e.g. -R0) may be used to specify all
36       columns.
37
38       -J, --json
39           Use JSON output format to print the table, the option
40           --table-columns is required and the option --table-name is
41           recommended.
42
43       -c, --output-width width
44           Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters.
45           The original name of this option is --columns; this name is
46           deprecated since v2.30. Note that input longer than width is not
47           truncated by default.
48
49       -d, --table-noheadings
50           Do not print header. This option allows the use of logical column
51           names on the command line, but keeps the header hidden when
52           printing the table.
53
54       -o, --output-separator string
55           Specify the columns delimiter for table output (default is two
56           spaces).
57
58       -s, --separator separators
59           Specify the possible input item delimiters (default is whitespace).
60
61       -t, --table
62           Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a
63           table. Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or with
64           the characters supplied using the --output-separator option. Table
65           output is useful for pretty-printing.
66
67       -N, --table-columns names
68           Specify the columns names by comma separated list of names. The
69           names are used for the table header or to address column in option
70           arguments.
71
72       -l, --table-columns-limit number
73           Specify maximal number of the input columns. The last column will
74           contain all remaining line data if the limit is smaller than the
75           number of the columns in the input data.
76
77       -R, --table-right columns
78           Right align text in the specified columns.
79
80       -T, --table-truncate columns
81           Specify columns where text can be truncated when necessary,
82           otherwise very long table entries may be printed on multiple lines.
83
84       -E, --table-noextreme columns
85           Specify columns where is possible to ignore unusually long (longer
86           than average) cells when calculate column width. The option has
87           impact to the width calculation and table formatting, but the
88           printed text is not affected.
89
90           The option is used for the last visible column by default.
91
92       -e, --table-header-repeat
93           Print header line for each page.
94
95       -W, --table-wrap columns
96           Specify columns where is possible to use multi-line cell for long
97           text when necessary.
98
99       -H, --table-hide columns
100           Don’t print specified columns. The special placeholder '-' may be
101           used to hide all unnamed columns (see --table-columns).
102
103       -O, --table-order columns
104           Specify columns order on output.
105
106       -n, --table-name name
107           Specify the table name used for JSON output. The default is
108           "table".
109
110       -L, --keep-empty-lines
111           Preserve whitespace-only lines in the input. The default is ignore
112           empty lines at all. This option’s original name was
113           --table-empty-lines but is now deprecated because it gives the
114           false impression that the option only applies to table mode.
115
116       -r, --tree column
117           Specify column to use tree-like output. Note that the circular
118           dependencies and other anomalies in child and parent relation are
119           silently ignored.
120
121       -i, --tree-id column
122           Specify column with line ID to create child-parent relation.
123
124       -p, --tree-parent column
125           Specify column with parent ID to create child-parent relation.
126
127       -x, --fillrows
128           Fill rows before filling columns.
129
130       -V, --version
131           Display version information and exit.
132
133       -h, --help
134           Display help text and exit.
135

ENVIRONMENT

137       The environment variable COLUMNS is used to determine the size of the
138       screen if no other information is available.
139

HISTORY

141       The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.
142

BUGS

144       Version 2.23 changed the -s option to be non-greedy, for example:
145
146           printf "a:b:c\n1::3\n" | column -t -s ':'
147
148       Old output:
149
150           a  b  c
151           1  3
152
153       New output (since util-linux 2.23):
154
155           a  b  c
156           1     3
157
158       Historical versions of this tool indicated that "rows are filled before
159       columns" by default, and that the -x option reverses this. This wording
160       did not reflect the actual behavior, and it has since been corrected
161       (see above). Other implementations of column may continue to use the
162       older documentation, but the behavior should be identical in any case.
163

EXAMPLES

165       Print fstab with header line and align number to the right:
166
167           sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column --table --table-columns SOURCE,TARGET,TYPE,OPTIONS,PASS,FREQ --table-right PASS,FREQ
168
169       Print fstab and hide unnamed columns:
170
171           sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column --table --table-columns SOURCE,TARGET,TYPE --table-hide -
172
173       Print a tree:
174
175           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
176           1  0  A
177           2  1  |-AA
178           4  2  | |-AAA
179           5  2  | `-AAB
180           3  1  `-AB
181

SEE ALSO

183       colrm(1), ls(1), paste(1), sort(1)
184

REPORTING BUGS

186       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
187       https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues.
188

AVAILABILITY

190       The column command is part of the util-linux package which can be
191       downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
192       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.
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196util-linux 2.37.2                 2021-06-02                         COLUMN(1)
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