Linux Shells by Example

fmt—simple text formatters

fmt [ –c ] [ –s ] [ –w width | –width ] [ inputfile… ]

fmt is a simple text formatter that fills and joins lines to produce output lines of (up to) the number of characters specified in the -w width option. The default width is 72. fmt concatenates the input files listed as arguments. If none are given, fmt formats text from the standard input.

Example A.29.

fmt -c -w45 letter

Explanation

Formats letter. The -c switch preserves the indentation of the first two lines within the paragraph and aligns the left margin of each subsequent line with that of the second line. The -w switch fills the output line with up to 45 columns.