On 11/02/2010 05:01 AM, Chris Jackson wrote: > Zhang Weiwu wrote: > >> from man column(1) >> >> -c Output is formatted for a display columns wide. >> >> Try: >> >> almust...@orphalese:~$ echo aaa bbb | column -c 20 >> >> >> expected result (17 spaces): >> >> aaa bbb >> >> actual result: >> >> almust...@orphalese:~$ echo aaa bbb | column -c 20 >> aaa bbb >> >> Confusing. Or do I misunderstand the purpose of column(1)? >> >> Thanks. > > > -c is for the total number of columns. Having said that, I can't get it > to actually do anything, so I could be wrong.
The question is, "What is a column?" In the case of -c, I think it's one character. As in a terminal window of 80 columns and 24 lines. For the column command, it looks like it's a "line" of input. So, to use another poster's suggestion, but running in a terminal window that has been widened to 155 columns x 25 lines: ls -l | sed 1d | column I got one "column", looking just like the ls -l would have, minus the first line. I tried -c 40, no difference. But a -c 250, I got two "columns", with wrapping of the long lines. Each column was a list of complete lines from from the ls: -rw-r--r-- 1 ....... filename drw-r--r-- 2 ...... dirname And so on. > > You could perhaps use awk: > > http://unstableme.blogspot.com/2008/12/awk-formatting-fields-into-columns.html > > (bit fugly) or, depending on exactly what you need, look at pr(1). > > -- > Chris Jackson > Shadowcat Systems Ltd. > > -- Bob McGowan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4cd09f6a.8000...@symantec.com
