Updated: 2022/Sep/29

Please read Privacy Policy. It's for your privacy.

FMT(1)                      General Commands Manual                     FMT(1)

NAME
     fmt - simple text formatter

SYNOPSIS
     fmt [-Cr] [goal [maximum]] [name ...]
     fmt [-Cr] [-g goal] [-m maximum] [-w maximum] [name ...]

DESCRIPTION
     fmt is a simple text formatter which reads the concatenation of input
     files (or standard input if none are given) and produces on standard
     output a version of its input with lines as close to the goal length as
     possible without exceeding the maximum.  The goal length defaults to 65
     and the maximum to 75.  The spacing at the beginning of the input lines
     is preserved in the output, as are blank lines and interword spacing.  In
     non raw mode, lines that look like mail headers or begin with a period
     are not formatted.

     -C                instructs fmt to center the text.

     -g goal           New way to set the goal length.

     -m maximum        New way to set the maximum length.

     -w maximum        New way to set the maximum length.

     -r                Raw mode; formats all lines and does not make
                       exceptions for lines that start with a period or look
                       like mail headers.

     fmt is meant to format mail messages prior to sending, but may also be
     useful for other simple tasks.  For instance, within visual mode of the
     ex(1) editor (e.g., vi(1)) the command

           !}fmt

     will reformat a paragraph, evening the lines.

SEE ALSO
     mail(1), nroff(1)

HISTORY
     The fmt command appeared in 3BSD.

BUGS
     The program was designed to be simple and fast - for more complex
     operations, the standard text processors are likely to be more
     appropriate.

NetBSD 10.99                     June 31, 2012                    NetBSD 10.99