FMT
Section: User commands (1)
Updated:
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NAME
fmt - adjust line-length for paragraphs of text
SYNOPSIS
fmt
[-w
width
|
-width]
[-s]
[-c]
[-i
chars]
[-C]
[-M]
[file]...
DESCRIPTION
This page describes the version of
fmt
distributed with
elvis(1).
fmt
is a simple text formatter.
It inserts or deletes newlines, as necessary, to make all lines in a
paragraph be approximately the same width.
It preserves indentation and word spacing.
If you don't name any files on the command line,
then fmt will read from stdin.
It is typically used from within
vi(1)
or
elvis(1)
to adjust the line breaks
in a single paragraph.
To do this, move the cursor to the top of the paragraph,
type "!}fmt", and
hit <Return>.
OPTIONS
- -w width or -width
-
Use a line width of width characters instead of the default
of 72 characters.
- -s
-
Don't join lines shorter than the line width to fill paragraphs.
- -c
-
Try to be smarter about crown margins.
Specifically, this tells
fmt
to expect the first line of each paragraph to have a different
indentation than subsequent lines.
If text from the first input line is wrapped onto the second output line, then
fmt
will scan ahead to figure out what indentation it should use for the second
output line, instead of reusing the first line's indentation.
- -i chars
-
Allow the indentation text to include any character from
chars,
in addition to spaces and tabs.
You should quote the
chars
list to protect it from the shell.
- -C and -M
-
These are shortcuts for combinations of other flags.
is short for
and is useful for reformatting C/C++ comments.
is short for
and is useful for reformatting email messages.
SEE ALSO
vi(1),
elvis(1)
AUTHOR
Steve Kirkendall
kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- OPTIONS
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- AUTHOR
-
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Time: 23:39:19 GMT, February 15, 2023