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28 .\" Modified by Gareth McCaughan to describe the new version of `fmt'
29 .\" rather than the old one.
35 .Nd simple text formatter
42 .Op Ar goal Oo Ar maximum Oc | Fl Ns Ar width | Fl w Ar width
47 utility is a simple text formatter which reads the concatenation of input
48 files (or standard input if none are given) and produces on standard
49 output a version of its input with lines as close to the
52 as possible without exceeding the
62 Alternatively, a single
64 parameter can be specified either by prepending a hyphen to it or by using
71 all produce identical output.
72 The spacing at the beginning of the input lines is preserved in the output,
73 as are blank lines and interword spacing.
74 Lines are joined or split only at white space; that is, words are never
77 The options are as follows:
78 .Bl -tag -width indent
80 Center the text, line by line.
81 In this case, most of the other
82 options are ignored; no splitting or joining of lines is done.
84 Try to format mail header lines contained in the input sensibly.
86 Format lines beginning with a
90 Allow indented paragraphs.
93 flag, any change in the amount of whitespace at the start of a line
94 results in a new paragraph being begun.
96 Collapse whitespace inside lines, so that multiple whitespace
97 characters are turned into a single space.
99 sentence, a double space.)
103 (and no others) as sentence-ending characters.
105 sentence-ending characters are full stop
111 Remember that some characters may need to be
112 escaped to protect them from your shell.
114 Replace multiple spaces with tabs at the start of each output
118 spaces will be replaced with one tab.
122 is 0, spaces are preserved.
124 Assume that the input files' tabs assume
133 is meant to format mail messages prior to sending, but may also be useful
134 for other simple tasks.
136 within visual mode of the
144 will reformat a paragraph,
151 environment variables affect the execution of
156 Center the text in standard input:
157 .Bd -literal -offset indent
158 $ echo -e 'The merit of all things\enlies\enin their difficulty' | fmt -c
159 The merit of all things
164 Format the text in standard input collapsing spaces:
165 .Bd -literal -offset indent
166 $ echo -e 'Multiple spaces will be collapsed' | fmt -s
167 Multiple spaces will be collapsed
178 The version described herein is a complete rewrite and appeared in
188 The program was designed to be simple and fast \- for more complex
189 operations, the standard text processors are likely to be more appropriate.
191 When the first line of an indented paragraph is very long (more than
192 about twice the goal length), the indentation in the output can be
197 utility is not infallible in guessing what lines are mail headers and what