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FMT(1) User Commands FMT(1)

NAME

fmt - simple optimal text formatter

SYNOPSIS

fmt [-WIDTH] [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION

Reformat each paragraph in the FILE(s), writing to standard output. The option -WIDTH is an abbreviated form of --width=DIGITS.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

preserve indentation of first two lines
reformat only lines beginning with STRING, reattaching the prefix to reformatted lines
split long lines, but do not refill
indentation of first line different from second
one space between words, two after sentences
maximum line width (default of 75 columns)
display this help and exit
output version information and exit

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

AUTHOR

Written by Ross Paterson.

REPORTING BUGS

Report fmt bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report fmt translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

The full documentation for fmt is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and fmt programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info coreutils 'fmt invocation'

should give you access to the complete manual.

June 2018 GNU coreutils 8.4