man/cat1p/pr.1p.txt

pr(P) pr(P)
 
 
 
 
 
NAME
       pr - print files
 
SYNOPSIS
       pr [+page][-column][-adFmrt][-e[char][ gap]][-h
       header][-i[char][gap]]
 
                   [-l lines][-n[char][width]][-o off-
       set][-s[char]][-w width][-fp]
               [file...]
 
DESCRIPTION
       The pr utility is a printing and pagination filter. If
       multiple input files are specified, each shall be read,
       formatted, and written to standard output. By default,
       the input shall be separated into 66-line pages, each
       with:
 
              A 5-line header that includes the page number,
              date, time, and the pathname of the file
 
              A 5-line trailer consisting of blank lines
 
       If standard output is associated with a terminal, diag-
       nostic messages shall be deferred until the pr utility
       has completed processing.
 
       When options specifying multi-column output are speci-
       fied, output text columns shall be of equal width; input
       lines that do not fit into a text column shall be trun-
       cated. By default, text columns shall be separated with
       at least one <blank>.
 
OPTIONS
       The pr utility shall conform to the Base Definitions
       volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility
       Syntax Guidelines, except that: the page option has a
       '+' delimiter; page and column can be multi-digit num-
       bers; some of the option-arguments are optional; and
       some of the option-arguments cannot be specified as sep-
       arate arguments from the preceding option letter. In
       particular, the -s option does not allow the option let-
       ter to be separated from its argument, and the options
       -e, -i, and -n require that both arguments, if present,
       not be separated from the option letter.
 
       The following options shall be supported. In the follow-
       ing option descriptions, column, lines, offset, page,
       and width are positive decimal integers; gap is a non-
       negative decimal integer.
 
       +page Begin output at page number page of the formatted
              input.
 
       -column
              Produce multi-column output that is arranged in
              column columns (the default shall be 1) and is
              written down each column in the order in which
              the text is received from the input file. This
              option should not be used with -m. The options -e
              and -i shall be assumed for multiple text-column
              output. Whether or not text columns are produced
              with identical vertical lengths is unspecified,
              but a text column shall never exceed the length
              of the page (see the -l option). When used with
              -t, use the minimum number of lines to write the
              output.
 
       -a Modify the effect of the - column option so that
              the columns are filled across the page in a
              round-robin order (for example, when column is 2,
              the first input line heads column 1, the second
              heads column 2, the third is the second line in
              column 1, and so on).
 
       -d Produce output that is double-spaced; append an
              extra <newline> following every <newline> found
              in the input.
 
       -e[char][gap]
 
              Expand each input <tab> to the next greater col-
              umn position specified by the formula n* gap+1,
              where n is an integer > 0. If gap is zero or is
              omitted, it shall default to 8. All <tab>s in the
              input shall be expanded into the appropriate num-
              ber of <space>s. If any non-digit character,
              char, is specified, it shall be used as the input
              <tab>.
 
       -f Use a <form-feed> for new pages, instead of the
              default behavior that uses a sequence of <new-
              line>s. Pause before beginning the first page if
              the standard output is associated with a termi-
              nal.
 
       -F Use a <form-feed> for new pages, instead of the
              default behavior that uses a sequence of <new-
              line>s.
 
       -h header
              Use the string header to replace the contents of
              the file operand in the page header.
 
       -i[char][gap]
              In output, replace multiple <space>s with <tab>s
              wherever two or more adjacent <space>s reach col-
              umn positions gap+1, 2* gap+1, 3* gap+1, and so
              on. If gap is zero or is omitted, default tab
              settings at every eighth column position shall be
              assumed. If any non-digit character, char, is
              specified, it shall be used as the output <tab>.
 
       -l lines
              Override the 66-line default and reset the page
              length to lines. If lines is not greater than
              the sum of both the header and trailer depths (in
              lines), the pr utility shall suppress both the
              header and trailer, as if the -t option were in
              effect.
 
       -m Merge files. Standard output shall be formatted
              so the pr utility writes one line from each file
              specified by a file operand, side by side into
              text columns of equal fixed widths, in terms of
              the number of column positions. Implementations
              shall support merging of at least nine file oper-
              ands.
 
       -n[char][width]
 
              Provide width-digit line numbering (default for
              width shall be 5). The number shall occupy the
              first width column positions of each text column
              of default output or each line of -m output. If
              char (any non-digit character) is given, it shall
              be appended to the line number to separate it
              from whatever follows (default for char is a
              <tab>).
 
       -o offset
              Each line of output shall be preceded by offset
              <space>s. If the -o option is not specified, the
              default offset shall be zero. The space taken is
              in addition to the output line width (see the -w
              option below).
 
       -p Pause before beginning each page if the standard
              output is directed to a terminal ( pr shall write
              an <alert> to standard error and wait for a <car-
              riage-return> to be read on /dev/tty).
 
       -r Write no diagnostic reports on failure to open
              files.
 
       -s[char]
              Separate text columns by the single character
              char instead of by the appropriate number of
              <space>s (default for char shall be <tab>).
 
       -t Write neither the five-line identifying header
              nor the five-line trailer usually supplied for
              each page. Quit writing after the last line of
              each file without spacing to the end of the page.
 
       -w width
              Set the width of the line to width column posi-
              tions for multiple text-column output only. If
              the -w option is not specified and the -s option
              is not specified, the default width shall be 72.
              If the -w option is not specified and the -s
              option is specified, the default width shall be
              512.
 
       For single column output, input lines shall not be trun-
       cated.
 
 
OPERANDS
       The following operand shall be supported:
 
       file A pathname of a file to be written. If no file
              operands are specified, or if a file operand is
              '-' , the standard input shall be used.
 
 
STDIN
       The standard input shall be used only if no file oper-
       ands are specified, or if a file operand is '-' . See
       the INPUT FILES section.
 
INPUT FILES
       The input files shall be text files.
 
       The file /dev/tty shall be used to read responses
       required by the -p option.
 
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables shall affect the
       execution of pr:
 
       LANG Provide a default value for the internationaliza-
              tion variables that are unset or null. (See the
              Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
              Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for
              the precedence of internationalization variables
              used to determine the values of locale cate-
              gories.)
 
       LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the
              values of all the other internationalization
              variables.
 
       LC_CTYPE
              Determine the locale for the interpretation of
              sequences of bytes of text data as characters
              (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-
              byte characters in arguments and input files) and
              which characters are defined as printable (char-
              acter class print). Non-printable characters are
              still written to standard output, but are not
              counted for the purpose for column-width and
              line-length calculations.
 
       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine the locale that should be used to
              affect the format and contents of diagnostic mes-
              sages written to standard error.
 
       LC_TIME
              Determine the format of the date and time for use
              in writing header lines.
 
       NLSPATH
              Determine the location of message catalogs for
              the processing of LC_MESSAGES .
 
       TZ Determine the timezone used to calculate date and
              time strings written in header lines. If TZ is
              unset or null, an unspecified default timezone
              shall be used.
 
 
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       If pr receives an interrupt while writing to a terminal,
       it shall flush all accumulated error messages to the
       screen before terminating.
 
STDOUT
       The pr utility output shall be a paginated version of
       the original file (or files). This pagination shall be
       accomplished using either <form-feed>s or a sequence of
       <newline>s, as controlled by the -F or -f option.
       Page headers shall be generated unless the -t option is
       specified. The page headers shall be of the form:
 
 
              "\n\n%s %s Page %d\n\n\n", <output of date>, <file>, <page number>
 
       In the POSIX locale, the <output of date> field, repre-
       senting the date and time of last modification of the
       input file (or the current date and time if the input
       file is standard input), shall be equivalent to the out-
       put of the following command as it would appear if exe-
       cuted at the given time:
 
 
              date "+%b %e %H:%M %Y"
 
       without the trailing <newline>, if the page being writ-
       ten is from standard input. If the page being written is
       not from standard input, in the POSIX locale, the same
       format shall be used, but the time used shall be the
       modification time of the file corresponding to file
       instead of the current time. When the LC_TIME locale
       category is not set to the POSIX locale, a different
       format and order of presentation of this field may be
       used.
 
       If the standard input is used instead of a file operand,
       the <file> field shall be replaced by a null string.
 
       If the -h option is specified, the <file> field shall be
       replaced by the header argument.
 
STDERR
       The standard error shall be used for diagnostic messages
       and for alerting the terminal when -p is specified.
 
OUTPUT FILES
       None.
 
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.
 
EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:
 
        0 Successful completion.
 
       >0 An error occurred.
 
 
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.
 
       The following sections are informative.
 
APPLICATION USAGE
       None.
 
EXAMPLES
       Print a numbered list of all files in the current direc-
       tory:
 
 
              ls -a | pr -n -h "Files in $(pwd)."
 
       Print file1 and file2 as a double-spaced, three-column
       listing headed by "file list'':
 
 
              pr -3d -h "file list" file1 file2
 
       Write file1 on file2, expanding tabs to columns 10, 19,
       28, ...:
 
 
              pr -e9 -t <file1 >file2
 
RATIONALE
       This utility is one of those that does not follow the
       Utility Syntax Guidelines because of its historical ori-
       gins. The standard developers could have added new
       options that obeyed the guidelines (and marked the old
       options obsolescent) or devised an entirely new utility;
       there are examples of both actions in this volume of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001. Because of its widespread use by
       historical applications, the standard developers decided
       to exempt this version of pr from many of the guide-
       lines.
 
       Implementations are required to accept option-arguments
       to the -h, -l, -o, and -w options whether presented as
       part of the same argument or as a separate argument to
       pr, as suggested by the Utility Syntax Guidelines. The
       -n and -s options, however, are specified as in histori-
       cal practice because they are frequently specified with-
       out their optional arguments. If a <blank> were allowed
       before the option-argument in these cases, a file oper-
       and could mistakenly be interpreted as an option-argu-
       ment in historical applications.
 
       The text about the minimum number of lines in multi-col-
       umn output was included to ensure that a best effort is
       made in balancing the length of the columns. There are
       known historical implementations in which, for example,
       60-line files are listed by pr -2 as one column of 56
       lines and a second of 4. Although this is not a problem
       when a full page with headers and trailers is produced,
       it would be relatively useless when used with -t.
 
       Historical implementations of the pr utility have dif-
       fered in the action taken for the -f option. BSD uses it
       as described here for the -F option; System V uses it to
       change trailing <newline>s on each page to a <form-feed>
       and, if standard output is a TTY device, sends an
       <alert> to standard error and reads a line from /dev/tty
       before the first page. There were strong arguments from
       both sides of this issue concerning historical practice
       and as a result the -F option was added. XSI-conformant
       systems support the System V historical actions for the
       -f option.
 
       The <output of date> field in the -l format is specified
       only for the POSIX locale. As noted, the format can be
       different in other locales. No mechanism for defining
       this is present in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
       as the appropriate vehicle is a message catalog; that
       is, the format should be specified as a "message".
 
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.
 
SEE ALSO
       expand , lp
 
COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in
       electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition,
       Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operat-
       ing System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Speci-
       fications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Insti-
       tute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and
       The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between
       this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group
       Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
       is the referee document. The original Standard can be
       obtained online at http://www.open-
       group.org/unix/online.html .
 
 
 
POSIX 2003 pr(P)