FMT(1)                           User commands                          FMT(1)



NAME
       fmt - adjust line-length for paragraphs of text

SYNOPSIS
       fmt [-w width | -width] [-s] [-c] [-i chars] [-C] [-M] [file]...

VERSION
       This page describes the Elvis 2.2_0 version of fmt.  See elvis(1).

DESCRIPTION
       fmt is a simple text formatter.  It inserts or deletes newlines, as
       necessary, to make all lines in a paragraph be approximately the same
       width.  It preserves indentation and word spacing.

       If you don't name any files on the command line, then fmt will read
       from stdin.

       It is typically used from within vi(1) or elvis(1) to adjust the line
       breaks in a single paragraph.  To do this, move the cursor to the top
       of the paragraph, type "!}fmt", and hit <Return>.

OPTIONS
       -w width or -width
              Use a line width of width characters instead of the default of
              72 characters.

       -s     Don't join lines shorter than the line width to fill paragraphs.

       -c     Try to be smarter about crown margins.  Specifically, this tells
              fmt to expect the first line of each paragraph to have a
              different indentation than subsequent lines.  If text from the
              first input line is wrapped onto the second output line, then
              fmt will scan ahead to figure out what indentation it should use
              for the second output line, instead of reusing the first line's
              indentation.

       -i chars
              Allow the indentation text to include any character from chars,
              in addition to spaces and tabs.  You should quote the chars list
              to protect it from the shell.

       -C and -M
              These are shortcuts for combinations of other flags.   is short
              for  and is useful for reformatting C/C++ comments.   is short
              for  and is useful for reformatting email messages.

SEE ALSO
       vi(1), elvis(1)

AUTHOR
       Steve Kirkendall
       kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu



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