xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/fold/fold.1 (revision 2e3f49888ec8851bafb22011533217487764fdb0)
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28.Dd October 29, 2020
29.Dt FOLD 1
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm fold
33.Nd "fold long lines for finite width output device"
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Nm
36.Op Fl bs
37.Op Fl w Ar width
38.Op Ar
39.Sh DESCRIPTION
40The
41.Nm
42utility is a filter which folds the contents of the specified files,
43or the standard input if no files are specified,
44breaking the lines to have a maximum of 80 columns.
45.Pp
46The options are as follows:
47.Bl -tag -width indent
48.It Fl b
49Count
50.Ar width
51in bytes rather than column positions.
52.It Fl s
53Fold line after the last blank character within the first
54.Ar width
55column positions (or bytes).
56.It Fl w Ar width
57Specify a line width to use instead of the default 80 columns.
58The
59.Ar width
60value
61should be a multiple of 8 if tabs are present, or the tabs should
62be expanded using
63.Xr expand 1
64before using
65.Nm .
66.El
67.Sh ENVIRONMENT
68The
69.Ev LANG , LC_ALL
70and
71.Ev LC_CTYPE
72environment variables affect the execution of
73.Nm
74as described in
75.Xr environ 7 .
76.Sh EXAMPLES
77Fold text in standard input with a width of 20 columns:
78.Bd -literal -offset indent
79$ echo "I am smart enough to know that I am dumb" | fold -w 15
80I am smart enou
81gh to know that
82 I am dumb
83.Ed
84.Pp
85Same as above but breaking lines after the last blank character:
86.Bd -literal -offset indent
87$ echo "I am smart enough to know that I am dumb" | fold -s -w 15
88I am smart
89enough to know
90that I am dumb
91.Ed
92.Sh SEE ALSO
93.Xr expand 1 ,
94.Xr fmt 1
95.Sh STANDARDS
96The
97.Nm
98utility conforms to
99.St -p1003.1-2001 .
100.Sh HISTORY
101The
102.Nm
103utility first appeared in
104.Bx 1 .
105It was rewritten for
106.Bx 4.3 Reno
107to improve speed and modernize style.
108The
109.Fl b
110and
111.Fl s
112options were added to
113.Nx 1.0
114for
115.St -p1003.2
116compliance.
117.Sh AUTHORS
118.An -nosplit
119.An Bill Joy
120wrote the original version of
121.Nm
122on June 28, 1977.
123.An Kevin Ruddy
124rewrote the command in 1990, and
125.An J. T. Conklin
126added the missing options in 1993.
127.Sh BUGS
128If underlining (see
129.Xr ul 1 )
130is present it may be messed up by folding.
131