fmt man page on Tru64

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fmt(1)									fmt(1)

NAME
       fmt - Formats mail messages prior to sending

SYNOPSIS
       fmt [-cs] [-w width] file...

OPTIONS
       Crown  margin  mode.  Preserves	the indentation of the first two lines
       within a paragraph and aligns the left margin of each  subsequent  line
       with  that  of  the  second line. This is useful for tagged paragraphs.
       Splits only lines. Does not join short lines to form longer ones.  This
       prevents	 lines of code and other such formatted text from being unduly
       combined.  Fills output lines upto width columns.

DESCRIPTION
       The fmt command reads the input file or files, or standard input if  no
       files  are  specified,  and  writes to standard output a version of the
       input with lines of a length as close as possible to -w width  columns.
       (Because	 fmt is internationalized software, the number of display col‐
       umns is not necessarily equivalent to the number of bytes.)

       The fmt command both joins and splits  lines  to	 achieve  the  desired
       width,  but  words  are	never  joined or split; spaces are always pre‐
       served, and lines are split at spaces only. In effect, fmt ignores new‐
       line  characters	 in the input and wraps words to make lines a close as
       possible to width columns, resulting in	individual  lines  of  varying
       length  but  a consistent (new) text width overall. Because blank lines
       are always preserved, fmt does not merge paragraphs separated by	 blank
       lines.

       If  you specify more than one file, the files are concatenated as input
       to fmt. If you do not specify -width, the default  line	length	is  72
       columns. Spacing at the beginning of input lines is always preserved in
       the output.

       The fmt command is generally used to format mail	 messages  to  improve
       their  appearance before they are sent. It may also be useful, however,
       for other simple formatting tasks. For example, when you are using  vi,
       you  can	 use  the command :%!fmt -60 to reformat your text so that all
       lines are approximately 60 columns long.

       Indentation is preserved in the	output.	 Input	lines  with  differing
       indentation are not joined unless -c is used.

NOTES
       The  fmt	 command  is  a fast, simple formatting program. Standard text
       editing programs are more appropriate than fmt for  complex  formatting
       operations.   Do not use the fmt command if the message contains embed‐
       ded messages or preformatted information from other files. This command
       formats the heading information in embedded messages and may change the
       format of preformatted information.

EXAMPLES
       file1 contains these lines:

	      Australia is an island-continent, home to many very  interesting
	      plants and animals.

	      To reformat this text to a narrower width, enter: fmt -30 file1

	      This  results in the following display on your screen: Australia
	      is an island-continent, home to many very interesting plants and
	      animals.

	      To make file1 wider, enter: fmt -60 file1

	      This  results in: Australia is an island-continent, home to many
	      very interesting plants and animals.  To format file1 using  -c,
	      enter: fmt -c file1

	      This results in:

	      Australia	 is an island-continent, home to many very interesting
	      plants and animals.  To format a message you have	 created  with
	      the mailx editor at the left margin, enter: ~|fmt

	      After  you enter the command, your message is formatted, in this
	      case to the default line length of 72 columns and the word  con‐
	      tinue  is displayed to indicate that you can enter more informa‐
	      tion or send your message.

SEE ALSO
       Commands:  mail(1), mailx(1), vi(1)

									fmt(1)
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