newform(1) manual page
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newform - change the format of a text file
newform [ -s ]
[ -itabspec ] [ -otabspec ] [ -bn ] [ -en ] [ -pn ] [ -an ] [ -f ] [ -cchar ]
[ -ln ] [ filename...]
SUNWesu
newform reads lines
from the named filenames, or the standard input if no input file is named,
and reproduces the lines on the standard output. Lines are reformatted in
accordance with command line options in effect.
Except for -s, command line
options may appear in any order, may be repeated, and may be intermingled
with the optional filenames. Command line options are processed in the order
specified. This means that option sequences like ‘‘-e15 -l60’’ will yield results
different from ‘‘-l60 -e15’’. Options are applied to all filenames on the command
line.
- -s
- Shears off leading characters on each line up to the first
tab and places up to 8 of the sheared characters at the end of the line.
If more than 8 characters (not counting the first tab) are sheared, the
eighth character is replaced by a * and any characters to the right of
it are discarded. The first tab is always discarded.
- An error message and
program exit will occur if this option
- is used on a file without a tab
on each line. The characters sheared off are saved internally until all
other options specified are applied to that line. The characters are then
added at the end of the processed line.
- For example, to convert a file
with leading digits,
- one or more tabs, and text on each line, to a file
beginning with the text, all tabs after the first expanded to spaces, padded
with spaces out to column 72 (or truncated to column 72), and the leading
digits placed starting at column 73, the command would be:
newform -s -i -l -a -e file-name
- -itabspec
- Input tab specification: expands tabs to spaces, according to
the tab specifications given. Tabspec recognizes all tab specification forms
described in tabs(1)
. In addition, tabspec may be --, in which newform assumes
that the tab specification is to be found in the first line read from the
standard input (see fspec(4)
). If no tabspec is given, tabspec defaults
to -8. A tabspec of -0 expects no tabs; if any are found, they are treated
as -1.
- -otabspec
- Output tab specification: replaces spaces by tabs, according
to the tab specifications given. The tab specifications are the same as
for -itabspec. If no tabspec is given, tabspec defaults to -8. A tabspec of
-0 means that no spaces will be converted to tabs on output.
- -bn
- Truncate
n characters from the beginning of the line when the line length is greater
than the effective line length (see -ln). Default is to truncate the number
of characters necessary to obtain the effective line length. The default
value is used when -b with no n is used. This option can be used to delete
the sequence numbers from a COBOL
program as follows:
newform -l1 -b7 file-name
- -en
- Same as -bn except that characters are truncated from the end of the
line.
- -pn
- Prefix n characters (see -cchar) to the beginning of a line when
the line length is less than the effective line length. Default is to prefix
the number of characters necessary to obtain the effective line length.
- -an
- Same as -pn except characters are appended to the end of a line.
- -f
- Write
the tab specification format line on the standard output before any other
lines are output. The tab specification format line which is printed will
correspond to the format specified in the last -o option. If no -o option
is specified, the line which is printed will contain the default specification
of -8.
- -cchar
- Change the prefix/append character to char. Default character
for char is a space.
- -ln
- Set the effective line length to n characters. If
n is not entered, -l defaults to 72. The default line length without the
-l option is 80 characters. Note: Tabs and backspaces are considered to
be one character (use -i to expand tabs to spaces).
- The
- -l1 must be used to
set the effective line length shorter than any existing line in the file
so that the -b option is activated.
csplit(1)
, tabs(1)
, fspec(4)
All diagnostics are fatal.
- usage: ...
- newform was called with a
bad option.
- "not -s format"
- There was no tab on one line.
- "can’t open file"
- Self-explanatory.
- "internal line too long"
- A line exceeds 512 characters
after being expanded in the internal work buffer.
- "tabspec in error"
- A
tab specification is incorrectly formatted, or specified tab stops are
not ascending.
- "tabspec indirection illegal"
- A tabspec read from a file
(or standard input) may not contain a tabspec referencing another file
(or standard input).
0 - normal execution
1 - for any error
newform normally only keeps track of physical characters; however,
for the -i and -o options, newform will keep track of backspaces in order
to line up tabs in the appropriate logical columns.
newform will not prompt
the user if a tabspec is to be read from the standard input (by use of
-i-- or -o--).
If the -f option is used, and the last -o option specified was
-o--, and was preceded by either a -o-- or a -i--, the tab specification format
line will be incorrect.
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