fold, fmt
© November 2003 Tony Lawrence
Similar in intent, but fmt is the more powerful of the two.
The purpose is to reformat lines to fit a fixed width output
device, and to do it intelligently so that lines are broken at
appropriate places rather than mid wo
rd (like that).
Within vi, you can simply do ":.!fmt" to fix an unruly paragraph, or ":1,$!fmt" to do the entire document. That's simple usage, "fmt" has many useful options.
Of course, "fmt file | lpr" can also be useful.
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Inexpensive and informative Apple related e-books:
Take Control of Automating Your Mac
Take Control of Numbers
El Capitan: A Take Control Crash Course
Take Control of Upgrading to El Capitan
Photos for Mac: A Take Control Crash Course
More Articles by Tony Lawrence © 2011-07-07 Tony Lawrence
Don't blame me for the fact that competent programming, as I view it as an intellectual possibility, will be too difficult for "the average programmer" — you must not fall into the trap of rejecting a surgical technique because it is beyond the capabilities of the barber in his shop around the corner. (Edsger W. Dijkstra)
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Thanks for the tip! No more 'fold' for me - 'fmt' works much better when printing README files to the printer!
- Bruce Garlock
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fmt Copyright © November 2003 Tony Lawrence
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