xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/colrm/colrm.1 (revision 2e3f49888ec8851bafb22011533217487764fdb0)
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28.Dd June 23, 2020
29.Dt COLRM 1
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm colrm
33.Nd remove columns from a file
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Nm
36.Op Ar start Op Ar stop
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38The
39.Nm
40utility removes selected columns from the lines of a file.
41A column is defined as a single character in a line.
42Input is read from the standard input.
43Output is written to the standard output.
44.Pp
45If only the
46.Ar start
47column is specified, columns numbered less than the
48.Ar start
49column will be written.
50If both
51.Ar start
52and
53.Ar stop
54columns are specified, columns numbered less than the
55.Ar start
56column
57or greater than the
58.Ar stop
59column will be written.
60Column numbering starts with one, not zero.
61.Pp
62Tab characters increment the column count to the next multiple of eight.
63Backspace characters decrement the column count by one.
64.Sh ENVIRONMENT
65The
66.Ev LANG , LC_ALL
67and
68.Ev LC_CTYPE
69environment variables affect the execution of
70.Nm
71as described in
72.Xr environ 7 .
73.Sh EXIT STATUS
74.Ex -std
75.Sh EXAMPLES
76Show columns below 3 (c) and above 5 (e):
77.Bd -literal -offset indent
78$ echo -e "abcdefgh\en12345678" | colrm 3 5
79abfgh
8012678
81.Ed
82.Pp
83Specifying a start column bigger than the number of columns in the file is
84allowed and shows all the columns:
85.Bd -literal -offset indent
86$ echo "abcdefgh" | colrm 100
87abcdefgh
88.Ed
89.Pp
90Using 1 as start column will show nothing:
91.Bd -literal -offset indent
92$ echo "abcdefgh" | colrm 1
93
94.Ed
95.Sh SEE ALSO
96.Xr awk 1 ,
97.Xr column 1 ,
98.Xr cut 1 ,
99.Xr paste 1
100.Sh HISTORY
101The
102.Nm
103utility first appeared in
104.Bx 1 .
105.Sh AUTHORS
106.An Jeff Schriebman
107wrote the original version of
108.Nm
109in November 1974.
110