xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/fold/fold.1 (revision 5f4c09dd85bff675e0ca63c55ea3c517e0fddfcc)
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28.\"	@(#)fold.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
29.\"
30.Dd October 29, 2020
31.Dt FOLD 1
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm fold
35.Nd "fold long lines for finite width output device"
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Nm
38.Op Fl bs
39.Op Fl w Ar width
40.Op Ar
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42The
43.Nm
44utility is a filter which folds the contents of the specified files,
45or the standard input if no files are specified,
46breaking the lines to have a maximum of 80 columns.
47.Pp
48The options are as follows:
49.Bl -tag -width indent
50.It Fl b
51Count
52.Ar width
53in bytes rather than column positions.
54.It Fl s
55Fold line after the last blank character within the first
56.Ar width
57column positions (or bytes).
58.It Fl w Ar width
59Specify a line width to use instead of the default 80 columns.
60The
61.Ar width
62value
63should be a multiple of 8 if tabs are present, or the tabs should
64be expanded using
65.Xr expand 1
66before using
67.Nm .
68.El
69.Sh ENVIRONMENT
70The
71.Ev LANG , LC_ALL
72and
73.Ev LC_CTYPE
74environment variables affect the execution of
75.Nm
76as described in
77.Xr environ 7 .
78.Sh EXAMPLES
79Fold text in standard input with a width of 20 columns:
80.Bd -literal -offset indent
81$ echo "I am smart enough to know that I am dumb" | fold -w 15
82I am smart enou
83gh to know that
84 I am dumb
85.Ed
86.Pp
87Same as above but breaking lines after the last blank character:
88.Bd -literal -offset indent
89$ echo "I am smart enough to know that I am dumb" | fold -s -w 15
90I am smart
91enough to know
92that I am dumb
93.Ed
94.Sh SEE ALSO
95.Xr expand 1 ,
96.Xr fmt 1
97.Sh STANDARDS
98The
99.Nm
100utility conforms to
101.St -p1003.1-2001 .
102.Sh HISTORY
103The
104.Nm
105utility first appeared in
106.Bx 1 .
107It was rewritten for
108.Bx 4.3 Reno
109to improve speed and modernize style.
110The
111.Fl b
112and
113.Fl s
114options were added to
115.Nx 1.0
116for
117.St -p1003.2
118compliance.
119.Sh AUTHORS
120.An -nosplit
121.An Bill Joy
122wrote the original version of
123.Nm
124on June 28, 1977.
125.An Kevin Ruddy
126rewrote the command in 1990, and
127.An J. T. Conklin
128added the missing options in 1993.
129.Sh BUGS
130If underlining (see
131.Xr ul 1 )
132is present it may be messed up by folding.
133