Hello,
Doh Smith wrote, On 02/22/2013 05:14 AM:
I could not get the pr command to fold the lines. Is this a bug?
I am using pr (GNU coreutils) 8.13 under GNU bash 4.2.24.
I think 'pr' does the pagination and columnation, but doesn't actual re-folds
(=wraps) lines to your desired length.
It is 'fmt' that can split long lines and join short lines.
Here is an example - the following pr command produced an output that
instead of folding a long line of text in the first column, it cuts it off:
$ echo Snow with areas of blowing snow. Low around 24. East wind around
15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.
Total nighttime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible. | pr -F
--columns=2
2013-02-22 04:08 Page 1
Snow with areas of blowing snow. L
Example with pr and fmt:
$ TEXT=Snow with areas of blowing snow. Low around 24. East wind around
15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.
Total nighttime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.
##
## Re-fold into one column of 34 characters
##
$ echo $TEXT | fmt -w 34
Snow with areas of blowing snow.
Low around 24. East wind around 15
mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Chance of precipitation is 100%.
Total nighttime snow accumulation
of 2 to 4 inches possible.
##
## Columnate the text
##
$ echo $TEXT | fmt -w 34 | pr -F --columns=2
2013-02-22 14:08 Page 1
Snow with areas of blowing snow.is 100%. Total nighttime snow
Low around 24. East wind around accumulation of 2 to 4 inches
15 mph, with gusts as high as possible.
25 mph. Chance of precipitation
===
Notes:
1. 34 characters was chosen because the default page length of pr is 72 (and
you want 2 columns + separator).
2. pr -F doesn't mean fold, it means use form-feed to separate pages -
just making sure you intended to use that.
HTH,
-gordon
