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FOLD(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual FOLD(1)
NAME
fold - fold long lines for finite width output device
SYNOPSIS
fold [-bs] [-w width] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
The fold utility is a filter which folds the contents of the specified
files, or the standard input if no files are specified, breaking the
lines to have a maximum of 80 columns.
The options are as follows:
-b Count width in bytes rather than column positions.
-s Fold line after the last blank character within the first width
column positions (or bytes).
-w width
Specify a line width to use instead of the default 80 columns.
The width value should be a multiple of 8 if tabs are present, or
the tabs should be expanded using expand(1) before using fold.
ENVIRONMENT
The LANG, LC_ALL and LC_CTYPE environment variables affect the execution
of fold as described in environ(7).
EXAMPLES
Fold text in standard input with a width of 20 columns:
$ echo "I am smart enough to know that I am dumb" | fold -w 15
I am smart enou
gh to know that
I am dumb
Same as above but breaking lines after the last blank character:
$ echo "I am smart enough to know that I am dumb" | fold -s -w 15
I am smart
enough to know
that I am dumb
SEE ALSO
expand(1), fmt(1)
STANDARDS
The fold utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 ("POSIX.1").
HISTORY
The fold utility first appeared in 1BSD. It was rewritten for
4.3BSD-Reno to improve speed and modernize style. The -b and -s options
were added to NetBSD 1.0 for IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2") compliance.
AUTHORS
Bill Joy wrote the original version of fold on June 28, 1977. Kevin
Ruddy rewrote the command in 1990, and J. T. Conklin added the missing
options in 1993.