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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.