1COLUMN(1)                        User Commands                       COLUMN(1)
2
3
4

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. The output is aligned to the terminal width in
26           interactive mode and the 80 columns in non-interactive mode (see
27           --output-width for more details).
28
29       Input is taken from file, or otherwise from standard input. Empty lines
30       are ignored and all invalid multibyte sequences are encoded by x<hex>
31       convention.
32

OPTIONS

34       The argument columns for --table-* options is a comma separated list of
35       the column names as defined by --table-columns or it’s column number in
36       order as specified by input. It’s possible to mix names and numbers.
37       The special placeholder '0' (e.g. -R0) may be used to specify all
38       columns.
39
40       -J, --json
41           Use JSON output format to print the table, the option
42           --table-columns is required and the option --table-name is
43           recommended.
44
45       -c, --output-width width
46           Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters.
47           The original name of this option is --columns; this name is
48           deprecated since v2.30. Note that input longer than width is not
49           truncated by default. The default is a terminal width and the 80
50           columns in non-interactive mode. The column headers are never
51           truncated.
52
53       -d, --table-noheadings
54           Do not print header. This option allows the use of logical column
55           names on the command line, but keeps the header hidden when
56           printing the table.
57
58       -o, --output-separator string
59           Specify the columns delimiter for table output (default is two
60           spaces).
61
62       -s, --separator separators
63           Specify the possible input item delimiters (default is whitespace).
64
65       -t, --table
66           Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a
67           table. Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or with
68           the characters supplied using the --output-separator option. Table
69           output is useful for pretty-printing.
70
71       -N, --table-columns names
72           Specify the columns names by comma separated list of names. The
73           names are used for the table header or to address column in option
74           arguments.
75
76       -l, --table-columns-limit number
77           Specify maximal number of the input columns. The last column will
78           contain all remaining line data if the limit is smaller than the
79           number of the columns in the input data.
80
81       -R, --table-right columns
82           Right align text in the specified columns.
83
84       -T, --table-truncate columns
85           Specify columns where text can be truncated when necessary,
86           otherwise very long table entries may be printed on multiple lines.
87
88       -E, --table-noextreme columns
89           Specify columns where is possible to ignore unusually long (longer
90           than average) cells when calculate column width. The option has
91           impact to the width calculation and table formatting, but the
92           printed text is not affected.
93
94           The option is used for the last visible column by default.
95
96       -e, --table-header-repeat
97           Print header line for each page.
98
99       -W, --table-wrap columns
100           Specify columns where is possible to use multi-line cell for long
101           text when necessary.
102
103       -H, --table-hide columns
104           Don’t print specified columns. The special placeholder '-' may be
105           used to hide all unnamed columns (see --table-columns).
106
107       -O, --table-order columns
108           Specify columns order on output.
109
110       -n, --table-name name
111           Specify the table name used for JSON output. The default is
112           "table".
113
114       -L, --keep-empty-lines
115           Preserve whitespace-only lines in the input. The default is ignore
116           empty lines at all. This option’s original name was
117           --table-empty-lines but is now deprecated because it gives the
118           false impression that the option only applies to table mode.
119
120       -r, --tree column
121           Specify column to use tree-like output. Note that the circular
122           dependencies and other anomalies in child and parent relation are
123           silently ignored.
124
125       -i, --tree-id column
126           Specify column with line ID to create child-parent relation.
127
128       -p, --tree-parent column
129           Specify column with parent ID to create child-parent relation.
130
131       -x, --fillrows
132           Fill rows before filling columns.
133
134       -h, --help
135           Display help text and exit.
136
137       -V, --version
138           Print version and exit.
139

ENVIRONMENT

141       The environment variable COLUMNS is used to determine the size of the
142       screen if no other information is available.
143

HISTORY

145       The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.
146

BUGS

148       Version 2.23 changed the -s option to be non-greedy, for example:
149
150           printf "a:b:c\n1::3\n" | column -t -s ':'
151
152       Old output:
153
154           a  b  c
155           1  3
156
157       New output (since util-linux 2.23):
158
159           a  b  c
160           1     3
161
162       Historical versions of this tool indicated that "rows are filled before
163       columns" by default, and that the -x option reverses this. This wording
164       did not reflect the actual behavior, and it has since been corrected
165       (see above). Other implementations of column may continue to use the
166       older documentation, but the behavior should be identical in any case.
167

EXAMPLES

169       Print fstab with header line and align number to the right:
170
171           sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column --table --table-columns SOURCE,TARGET,TYPE,OPTIONS,PASS,FREQ --table-right PASS,FREQ
172
173       Print fstab and hide unnamed columns:
174
175           sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column --table --table-columns SOURCE,TARGET,TYPE --table-hide -
176
177       Print a tree:
178
179           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
180           1  0  A
181           2  1  |-AA
182           4  2  | |-AAA
183           5  2  | `-AAB
184           3  1  `-AB
185

SEE ALSO

187       colrm(1), ls(1), paste(1), sort(1)
188

REPORTING BUGS

190       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
191       https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.
192

AVAILABILITY

194       The column command is part of the util-linux package which can be
195       downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
196       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.
197
198
199
200util-linux 2.38.1                 2022-08-04                         COLUMN(1)
Impressum