#column

Version 0.1.4. See the support record for release evidence.

Arrange input into columns or an aligned table:

printf 'one\ntwo\nthree\n' | moonx cli/column -c 40
printf 'name age\nAda 36\n' | moonx cli/column -t
printf 'a:b\ncc:ddd\n' | moonx cli/column -t -s : -o ' | '

The default fills columns vertically and separates them with TABs. -c/--output-width selects a width; the default is positive COLUMNS or 80. A width of 0 or unlimited prints one input record per line. -x/--fillrows fills rows first.

-t/--table aligns fields from all input files in one table. -s/--separator supplies a set of delimiter bytes and preserves empty fields; the default splits runs of space and TAB. -o/--output-separator replaces the default two spaces between table columns. Table alignment excludes complete ANSI color sequences from the display width while preserving their bytes. Blank and whitespace-only input lines are skipped; the first NUL ends the displayed contents of its input line. Every output record ends with a newline. Omit file operands for stdin; a literal - is a filename, as in util-linux 2.40.

Layout follows the GNU/Linux C locale: non-ASCII bytes are escaped as \xHH. Non-ASCII input delimiters are rejected. Automatic terminal width, locale display widths, tree/JSON output and the full util-linux table grammar are not implemented. --help and --version are available.

Input is read once into a temporary snapshot before layout; later file changes cannot change the second pass. The snapshot and its index require temporary filesystem write access. Storage is proportional to the displayed input plus 16 bytes per retained record. Memory retains the longest record, table column widths and fixed I/O buffers, rather than all input rows or the complete output. Table and small-grid caches retain at most 1 MiB of record pages and 64 KiB of index pages. Wide grids select up to 256 pages per cache from the output column count, raising those limits to 16 MiB and 1 MiB respectively. Pages are allocated only as read. The snapshot uses two temporary files. A record containing non-ASCII bytes can expand to four display bytes per input byte. Temporary files are removed on normal completion, errors and observable cancellation; forced process termination cannot guarantee cleanup. An input error preserves already consumed records and continues with later files. A temporary-file or output failure stops formatting; output may already contain a prefix once the formatting pass has begun.

#Standalone metadata

Standalone --version prints exactly column 0.1.4 followed by one newline. Standalone --help starts with Usage: column, lists both metadata options, and ends with a newline. Both write to stdout, leave stdin unread, and exit with status 0. Exact-version publication and verification remain recorded separately in the support record.

Source Files

Site source Report issue Packages Build queue Skills Statistics