pr —
print files
pr |
[ +page
]
[-column
]
[-adFfmrt
]
[]
[-h
header
]
[]
[-l
lines
]
[]
[-o
offset
]
[]
[-w
width
]
[file ... ] |
The
pr utility is a printing and pagination
filter for text files. When multiple input files are specified, each is read,
formatted, and written to standard output. By default, the input is separated
into 66-line pages, each with
- A 5-line header with the page number, date, time, and the pathname of the
file.
- A 5-line trailer consisting of blank lines.
Optionally, the trailer can be replaced by a
<form-feed> where this is more appropriate
for the output device being used and
<tab>s
can be expanded to input relative
<spaces>s
or
<space>s can be contracted to output
relative
<tab>s. The
pr utility also interprets
<form-feed>s in the input as the logical
end of pages.
When multiple column output is specified, text columns are of equal width. By
default text columns are separated by at least one
<blank>. Input lines that do not fit into a
text column are truncated, except in the default single columns output mode.
Error messages are written to standard error during the printing process (if
output is redirected) or after all successful file printing is complete (when
printing to a terminal). If
pr receives an
interrupt while printing to a terminal, it flushes all accumulated error
messages to the screen before terminating.
The options are as follows:
-
-
+page- Begin output at page number page of the
formatted input.
-
-
-column- Produce output that is columns wide
(default is 1) that is written vertically down each column in the order in
which the text is received from the input file. The options
-e and
-i are assumed. This option should not
be used with -m. When used with
-t, the minimum number of lines is used
to display the output.
-
-
-a- Modify the effect of the
-column
option so that the columns are filled across the page in a round-robin
order (e.g., 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, etc.).
This option requires the use of the
-column
option.
-
-
-d- Produce output that is double spaced. An extra
<newline> character is output following
every <newline> found in the
input.
-
-
-e[char
][gap
]- Expand each input <tab> to the next
greater column position specified by the formula
n*gap+1, where
n is an integer > 0. If
gap is zero or is omitted the default is
8. All <tab> characters in the input
are expanded into the appropriate number of
<space>s. If any nondigit character,
char, is specified, it is used as the
input tab character.
-
-
-F- Use a <form-feed> character for new
pages, instead of the default behavior that uses a sequence of
<newline> characters.
-
-
-f- Same as the
-F option.
-
-
-h
header- Use the string header to replace the
file name in the header line.
-
-
-i[char
][gap
]- In output, replace multiple <space>s
with <tab>s whenever two or more
adjacent <space>s reach column
positions gap+1,
2*gap+1, etc. If
gap is zero or omitted, default
<tab> settings at every eighth column
position is used. If any nondigit character,
char, is specified, it is used as the
output <tab> character.
-
-
-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 suppresses output of both
the header and trailer, as if the -t
option were in effect.
-
-
-m- Merge the contents of multiple files. One line from each file specified by
a file operand is written side by side into text columns of equal fixed
widths, in terms of the number of column positions. The number of text
columns depends on the number of file operands successfully opened. The
maximum number of files merged depends on page width and the per process
open file limit. The options
-e and
-i are assumed.
-
-
-n[char
][width
]- Provide width digit line numbering. The
default for width, if not specified, is
5. The number occupies the first width
column positions of each text column or each line of
-m output. If
char (any nondigit character) is given,
it is appended to the line number to separate it from whatever follows.
The default for char is a
<tab>. Line numbers longer than
width columns are truncated.
-
-
-o
offset- Each line of output is preceded by offset
<spaces>s. If the
-o option is not specified, the default
is zero. The space taken is in addition to the output line width.
-
-
-r- Write no diagnostic reports on failure to open a file.
-
-
-s[char
]- Separate text columns by the single character
char instead of by the appropriate number
of <space>s (default for
char is the
<tab> character).
-
-
-t- Print neither the five-line identifying header nor the five-line trailer
usually supplied for each page. Quit printing 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
positions for multiple text-column output only. If the
-w option is not specified and the
-s option is not specified, the default
width is 72. If the -w option is not
specified and the -s option is
specified, the default width is 512.
-
-
- file
- A pathname of a file to be printed. If no
file operands are specified, or if a
file operand is ‘-’, the
standard input is used. The standard input is used only if no
file operands are specified, or if a
file operand is ‘-’.
The
pr utility exits 0 on success,
and >0 if an error occurs.
cat(1),
more(1),
ascii(7)
The
pr utility is compliant with the
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008
(“POSIX.1”) specification.
The flag [
-f
] is marked
by
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008
(“POSIX.1”) as being an X/Open System Interfaces option.
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008
(“POSIX.1”) is relatively silent concerning the handling
of input characters beyond the behavior dictated by the
pr required command options.
A
pr command appeared in
Version 1 AT&T UNIX.
The interpretation of
<form-feed>s in the
input stream is that they are special
<newline>s which have the side effect of
causing a page break. While this works correctly for all cases, strict
interpretation also implies that the common convention of placing a
<form-feed> on a line by itself is actually
interpreted as a blank line, page break, blank line.
The
pr utility is intended to paginate input
containing basic
ascii(7) text
formatting and input streams containing non-printing
<control-characters>,
<escape-sequences> or long lines may result
in formatting errors.
The
pr utility does not currently understand
over-printing using
<back-space> or
<return> characters, and except in the case
of unmodified single-column output, use of these characters will cause
formatting errors.
The lack of a line wrapping option, and the specification that truncation does
not apply to single-column output frequently results in formatting errors when
input lines are longer than actual line width of the output device.
The default width of 72 is archaic and non-obvious since it is normally ignored
in the default single column mode. Using the
-m option with one column provides a way to
truncate single column output but there's no way to wrap long lines to a fixed
line width.
The default of
<tab> for the separator for
the
-n and
-s options often results in lines
apparently wider than expected.
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