column - columnate lists
column [options] [file...]
COLUMN(1) User Commands COLUMN(1)
NAME
column - columnate lists
SYNOPSIS
column [options] [file...]
DESCRIPTION
The column utility formats its input into multiple columns. By
default, rows are filled before columns. Input is taken from file, or
otherwise from standard input. Empty lines are ignored.
OPTIONS
-c, --columns width
Output is formatted to a width specified as number of charac-
ters.
-o, --output-separator string
Specify the columns delimiter for table output (default is two
spaces).
-s, --separator separators
Specify the possible input item delimiters (default is white-
space).
-t, --table
Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a
table. Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or
with the characters supplied using the --output-separator
option. Table output is useful for pretty-printing.
-x, --fillrows
Fill columns before filling rows.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable COLUMNS is used to determine the size of the
screen if no other information is available.
EXAMPLES
sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column -t
BUGS
Version 2.23 changed the -s option to be non-greedy, for example:
printf "a:b:c\n1::3\n" | column -t -s ':'
Old output:
a b c
1 3
New output (since util-linux 2.23):
a b c
1 3
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+---------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+---------------------+
|Availability | text/text-utilities |
+---------------+---------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+---------------------+
SEE ALSO
colrm(1), ls(1), paste(1), sort(1)
HISTORY
The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.
AVAILABILITY
The column command is part of the util-linux package and is available
from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from https://www.ker-
nel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/v2.29/util-linux-2.29.tar.xz
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux.
util-linux July 2014 COLUMN(1)