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.TH COL 1 "Feb 1, 1995"
.SH NAME
col \- reverse line-feeds filter
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
\fBcol\fR [\fB-bfpx\fR]
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
.LP
The \fBcol\fR utility reads from the standard input and writes to the standard
output. It performs the line overlays implied by reverse line-feeds, and by
forward and reverse half-line-feeds. Unless \fB-x\fR is used, all blank
characters in the input will be converted to tab characters wherever possible.
\fBcol\fR is particularly useful for filtering multi-column output made with
the \fB\&.rt\fR command of \fBnroff\fR(1) and output resulting from use of the
\fBtbl\fR(1) preprocessor.
.sp
.LP
The \fBASCII\fR control characters \fBSO\fR and \fBSI\fR are assumed by
\fBcol\fR to start and end text in an alternative character set. The character
set to which each input character belongs is remembered, and on output \fBSI\fR
and \fBSO\fR characters are generated as appropriate to ensure that each
character is written in the correct character set.
.sp
.LP
On input, the only control characters accepted are space, backspace, tab,
carriage-return and newline characters, \fBSI,\fR \fBSO,\fR \fBVT,\fR reverse
line-feed, forward half-line-feed and reverse half-line-feed. The \fBVT\fR
character is an alternative form of full reverse line-feed, included for
compatibility with some earlier programs of this type. The only other
characters to be copied to the output are those that are printable.
.sp
.LP
The \fBASCII\fR codes for the control functions and line-motion sequences
mentioned above are as given in the table below. \fBESC\fR stands for the
\fBASCII\fR escape character, with the octal code 033; \fBESC\fR\fB\(mi\fR
means a sequence of two characters, \fBESC\fR followed by the character
\fBx\fR.
.sp

.sp
.TS
l l
l l .
reverse line-feed	ESC\(mi7
reverse half-line-feed	ESC\(mi8
forward half-line-feed	ESC\(mi9
vertical-tab (VT)	013
start-of-text (SO)	016
end-of-text (SI)	017
.TE

.SH OPTIONS
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-b\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 7n
Assume that the output device in use is not capable of backspacing. In this
case, if two or more characters are to appear in the same place, only the last
one read will be output.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-f\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 7n
Although \fBcol\fR accepts half-line motions in its input, it normally does not
emit them on output. Instead, text that would appear between lines is moved to
the next lower full-line boundary. This treatment can be suppressed by the
\fB-f\fR (fine) option; in this case, the output from \fBcol\fR may contain
forward half-line-feeds (ESC-9), but will still never contain either kind of
reverse line motion.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-p\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 7n
Normally, \fBcol\fR will ignore any escape sequences unknown to it that are
found in its input; the \fB-p\fR option may be used to cause \fBcol\fR to
output these sequences as regular characters, subject to overprinting from
reverse line motions. The use of this option is highly discouraged unless the
user is fully aware of the textual position of the escape sequences.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-x\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 7n
Prevent \fBcol\fR from converting blank characters to tab characters on output
wherever possible. Tab stops are considered to be at each column position
\fIn\fR such that \fIn\fR modulo 8 equals 1.
.RE

.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.sp
.LP
See \fBenviron\fR(7) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of \fBcol\fR: \fBLC_CTYPE\fR, \fBLC_MESSAGES\fR, and
\fBNLSPATH\fR.
.SH EXIT STATUS
.sp
.LP
The following error values are returned:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB0\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 7n
Successful completion.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB>0\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 7n
An error occurred.
.RE

.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
CSI	enabled
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
.BR nroff (1),
.BR tbl (1),
.BR ascii (7),
.BR attributes (7),
.BR environ (7)
.SH NOTES
.sp
.LP
The input format accepted by \fBcol\fR matches the output produced by
\fBnroff\fR with either the \fB-T37\fR or \fB-Tlp\fR options. Use \fB-T37\fR
(and the \fB-f\fR option of \fBcol\fR) if the ultimate disposition of the
output of \fBcol\fR will be a device that can interpret half-line motions, and
\fB-Tlp\fR otherwise.
.sp
.LP
\fBcol\fR cannot back up more than 128 lines or handle more than 800 characters
per line.
.sp
.LP
Local vertical motions that would result in backing up over the first line of
the document are ignored. As a result, the first line must not have any
superscripts.