1PR(P) POSIX Programmer's Manual PR(P)
2
6 pr - print files
7
9 pr [+page][-column][-adFmrt][-e[char][ gap]][-h header][-i[char][gap]]
10 [-l lines][-n[char][width]][-o offset][-s[char]][-w width][-fp]
12 [file...]
13
15 The pr utility is a printing and pagination filter. If multiple input
16 files are specified, each shall be read, formatted, and written to
17 standard output. By default, the input shall be separated into 66-line
18 pages, each with:
19 * A 5-line header that includes the page number, date, time, and the
21 pathname of the file
22 * A 5-line trailer consisting of blank lines
24 If standard output is associated with a terminal, diagnostic messages
26 shall be deferred until the pr utility has completed processing.
27 When options specifying multi-column output are specified, output text
29 columns shall be of equal width; input lines that do not fit into a
30 text column shall be truncated. By default, text columns shall be sepa‐
31 rated with at least one <blank>.
32
34 The pr utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
35 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines, except
36 that: the page option has a '+' delimiter; page and column can be
37 multi-digit numbers; some of the option-arguments are optional; and
38 some of the option-arguments cannot be specified as separate arguments
39 from the preceding option letter. In particular, the -s option does not
40 allow the option letter to be separated from its argument, and the
41 options -e, -i, and -n require that both arguments, if present, not be
42 separated from the option letter.
43 The following options shall be supported. In the following option
45 descriptions, column, lines, offset, page, and width are positive deci‐
46 mal integers; gap is a non-negative decimal integer.
47 +page Begin output at page number page of the formatted input.
49 -column
51 Produce multi-column output that is arranged in column columns
52 (the default shall be 1) and is written down each column in the
53 order in which the text is received from the input file. This
54 option should not be used with -m. The options -e and -i shall
55 be assumed for multiple text-column output. Whether or not text
56 columns are produced with identical vertical lengths is unspeci‐
57 fied, but a text column shall never exceed the length of the
58 page (see the -l option). When used with -t, use the minimum
59 number of lines to write the output.
60 -a Modify the effect of the - column option so that the columns are
62 filled across the page in a round-robin order (for example, when
63 column is 2, the first input line heads column 1, the second
64 heads column 2, the third is the second line in column 1, and so
65 on).
66 -d Produce output that is double-spaced; append an extra <newline>
68 following every <newline> found in the input.
69 -e[char][gap]
71 Expand each input <tab> to the next greater column position
73 specified by the formula n* gap+1, where n is an integer > 0. If
74 gap is zero or is omitted, it shall default to 8. All <tab>s in
75 the input shall be expanded into the appropriate number of
76 <space>s. If any non-digit character, char, is specified, it
77 shall be used as the input <tab>.
78 -f Use a <form-feed> for new pages, instead of the default behavior
80 that uses a sequence of <newline>s. Pause before beginning the
81 first page if the standard output is associated with a terminal.
82 -F Use a <form-feed> for new pages, instead of the default behavior
84 that uses a sequence of <newline>s.
85 -h header
87 Use the string header to replace the contents of the file oper‐
88 and in the page header.
89 -i[char][gap]
91 In output, replace multiple <space>s with <tab>s wherever two or
92 more adjacent <space>s reach column positions gap+1, 2* gap+1,
93 3* gap+1, and so on. If gap is zero or is omitted, default tab
94 settings at every eighth column position shall be assumed. If
95 any non-digit character, char, is specified, it shall be used as
96 the output <tab>.
97 -l lines
99 Override the 66-line default and reset the page length to lines.
100 If lines is not greater than the sum of both the header and
101 trailer depths (in lines), the pr utility shall suppress both
102 the header and trailer, as if the -t option were in effect.
103 -m Merge files. Standard output shall be formatted so the pr util‐
105 ity writes one line from each file specified by a file operand,
106 side by side into text columns of equal fixed widths, in terms
107 of the number of column positions. Implementations shall sup‐
108 port merging of at least nine file operands.
109 -n[char][width]
111 Provide width-digit line numbering (default for width shall be
113 5). The number shall occupy the first width column positions of
114 each text column of default output or each line of -m output. If
115 char (any non-digit character) is given, it shall be appended to
116 the line number to separate it from whatever follows (default
117 for char is a <tab>).
118 -o offset
120 Each line of output shall be preceded by offset <space>s. If the
121 -o option is not specified, the default offset shall be zero.
122 The space taken is in addition to the output line width (see the
123 -w option below).
124 -p Pause before beginning each page if the standard output is
126 directed to a terminal ( pr shall write an <alert> to standard
127 error and wait for a <carriage-return> to be read on /dev/tty).
128 -r Write no diagnostic reports on failure to open files.
130 -s[char]
132 Separate text columns by the single character char instead of by
133 the appropriate number of <space>s (default for char shall be
134 <tab>).
135 -t Write neither the five-line identifying header nor the five-line
137 trailer usually supplied for each page. Quit writing after the
138 last line of each file without spacing to the end of the page.
139 -w width
141 Set the width of the line to width column positions for multiple
142 text-column output only. If the -w option is not specified and
143 the -s option is not specified, the default width shall be 72.
144 If the -w option is not specified and the -s option is speci‐
145 fied, the default width shall be 512.
146 For single column output, input lines shall not be truncated.
148
151 The following operand shall be supported:
152 file A pathname of a file to be written. If no file operands are
154 specified, or if a file operand is '-' , the standard input
155 shall be used.
156
159 The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are speci‐
160 fied, or if a file operand is '-' . See the INPUT FILES section.
161
163 The input files shall be text files.
164 The file /dev/tty shall be used to read responses required by the -p
166 option.
167
169 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of pr:
170 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
172 that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
173 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
174 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
175 to determine the values of locale categories.)
176 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
178 the other internationalization variables.
179 LC_CTYPE
181 Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
182 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
183 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files)
184 and which characters are defined as printable (character class
185 print). Non-printable characters are still written to standard
186 output, but are not counted for the purpose for column-width and
187 line-length calculations.
188 LC_MESSAGES
190 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
191 and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
192 LC_TIME
194 Determine the format of the date and time for use in writing
195 header lines.
196 NLSPATH
198 Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
199 LC_MESSAGES .
200 TZ Determine the timezone used to calculate date and time strings
202 written in header lines. If TZ is unset or null, an unspecified
203 default timezone shall be used.
204
207 If pr receives an interrupt while writing to a terminal, it shall flush
208 all accumulated error messages to the screen before terminating.
209
211 The pr utility output shall be a paginated version of the original file
212 (or files). This pagination shall be accomplished using either <form-
213 feed>s or a sequence of <newline>s, as controlled by the -F or -f
214 option. Page headers shall be generated unless the -t option is speci‐
215 fied. The page headers shall be of the form:
216 "\n\n%s %s Page %d\n\n\n", <output of date>, <file>, <page number>
219 In the POSIX locale, the <output of date> field, representing the date
221 and time of last modification of the input file (or the current date
222 and time if the input file is standard input), shall be equivalent to
223 the output of the following command as it would appear if executed at
224 the given time:
225 date "+%b %e %H:%M %Y"
228 without the trailing <newline>, if the page being written is from stan‐
230 dard input. If the page being written is not from standard input, in
231 the POSIX locale, the same format shall be used, but the time used
232 shall be the modification time of the file corresponding to file
233 instead of the current time. When the LC_TIME locale category is not
234 set to the POSIX locale, a different format and order of presentation
235 of this field may be used.
236 If the standard input is used instead of a file operand, the <file>
238 field shall be replaced by a null string.
239 If the -h option is specified, the <file> field shall be replaced by
241 the header argument.
242
244 The standard error shall be used for diagnostic messages and for alert‐
245 ing the terminal when -p is specified.
246
248 None.
249
251 None.
252
254 The following exit values shall be returned:
255 0 Successful completion.
257 >0 An error occurred.
259
262 Default.
263 The following sections are informative.
265
267 None.
268
270 1. Print a numbered list of all files in the current directory:
271 ls -a | pr -n -h "Files in $(pwd)."
274 2. Print file1 and file2 as a double-spaced, three-column listing
276 headed by "file list'':
277 pr -3d -h "file list" file1 file2
280 3. Write file1 on file2, expanding tabs to columns 10, 19, 28, ...:
282 pr -e9 -t <file1 >file2
285
287 This utility is one of those that does not follow the Utility Syntax
288 Guidelines because of its historical origins. The standard developers
289 could have added new options that obeyed the guidelines (and marked the
290 old options obsolescent) or devised an entirely new utility; there are
291 examples of both actions in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.
292 Because of its widespread use by historical applications, the standard
293 developers decided to exempt this version of pr from many of the guide‐
294 lines.
295 Implementations are required to accept option-arguments to the -h, -l,
297 -o, and -w options whether presented as part of the same argument or as
298 a separate argument to pr, as suggested by the Utility Syntax Guide‐
299 lines. The -n and -s options, however, are specified as in historical
300 practice because they are frequently specified without their optional
301 arguments. If a <blank> were allowed before the option-argument in
302 these cases, a file operand could mistakenly be interpreted as an
303 option-argument in historical applications.
304 The text about the minimum number of lines in multi-column output was
306 included to ensure that a best effort is made in balancing the length
307 of the columns. There are known historical implementations in which,
308 for example, 60-line files are listed by pr -2 as one column of 56
309 lines and a second of 4. Although this is not a problem when a full
310 page with headers and trailers is produced, it would be relatively use‐
311 less when used with -t.
312 Historical implementations of the pr utility have differed in the
314 action taken for the -f option. BSD uses it as described here for the
315 -F option; System V uses it to change trailing <newline>s on each page
316 to a <form-feed> and, if standard output is a TTY device, sends an
317 <alert> to standard error and reads a line from /dev/tty before the
318 first page. There were strong arguments from both sides of this issue
319 concerning historical practice and as a result the -F option was added.
320 XSI-conformant systems support the System V historical actions for the
321 -f option.
322 The <output of date> field in the -l format is specified only for the
324 POSIX locale. As noted, the format can be different in other locales.
325 No mechanism for defining this is present in this volume of
326 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, as the appropriate vehicle is a message catalog;
327 that is, the format should be specified as a "message".
328
330 None.
331
333 expand , lp
334
336 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
337 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
338 -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
339 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
340 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
341 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
342 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
343 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
344 at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
345IEEE/The Open Group 2003 PR(P)