newform(1)							    newform(1)

NAME
       newform - change or reformat a text file

SYNOPSIS
       [file]...

DESCRIPTION
       reads lines from the named files, or standard input if no input file is
       named, and reproduces the lines on standard output.  Lines  are	refor‐
       matted in accordance with command line options in effect.

       Command	line options can appear in any order, can be repeated, and can
       be intermingled with the optional files.	 Command line options are pro‐
       cessed  in  the order specified.	 This means that option sequences such
       as yield results different from Options are applied to all files on the
       command line.

   Options
       recognizes the following options:

	      Same as	     except  characters	 are  appended to the end of a
			     line.

	      Truncate	     n characters from the beginning of the line  when
			     the  line	length	is  greater than the effective
			     line length (see The default is to	 truncate  the
			     number  of	 characters  necessary	to  obtain the
			     effective line length.  The default value is used
			     when  with no n is used.  This option can be used
			     to delete the sequence numbers from a COBOL  pro‐
			     gram as follows:

			     The must be used to set the effective line length
			     shorter than any existing line  in	 the  file  so
			     that the option is activated.

	      Change the prefix/append character to
			     k.	 The default character for k is a space.

	      Same as	     except that characters are truncated from the end
			     of the line.

	      Write the tab specification format line on the standard output
			     before any other lines are output.	 The tab spec‐
			     ification	format line which is printed will cor‐
			     respond to the format specified  in  the  option.
			     If	 no  option  is	 specified,  the line which is
			     printed contains the default specification of

	      Input tab specification:
			     expands tabs to  spaces,  according  to  the  tab
			     specifications given.  The tabspec recognizes all
			     tab specification forms described in tabs(1).  In
			     addition,	tabspec	 can  be in which assumes that
			     the tab specification is to be found in the first
			     line read from the standard input (see fspec(4)).
			     If no tabspec is given,  tabspec  defaults	 to  A
			     tabspec  of  expects  no  tabs; if any are found,
			     they are treated as

	      Set the effective line length to
			     n characters.  If n is not entered,  defaults  to
			     72.   The	default line length without the option
			     is 80 characters.	Note that tabs and  backspaces
			     are  treated  as single characters (use to expand
			     tabs to spaces).

	      Output tab specification:
			     replaces spaces with tabs, according to  the  tab
			     specifications given.  The tab specifications are
			     the same as for If no tabspec is  given,  tabspec
			     defaults  to  A  tabspec  of means that no spaces
			     will be converted to tabs on output.

	      Prefix	     n characters (see to the beginning of a line when
			     the  line	length is less than the effective line
			     length.  The default is to prefix the  number  of
			     characters necessary to obtain the effective line
			     length.

	      Shear off leading characters on each line up to  the  first  tab
	      and
			     place  up	to  8 of the sheared characters at the
			     end of the line.  If more than 8 characters  (not
			     counting  the  first tab) are sheared, the eighth
			     character is replaced by a and any characters  to
			     the  right of it are discarded.  The first tab is
			     always discarded.

			     An error message and program exit occur  if  this
			     option  is	 used  on a file without a tab on each
			     line.   The  characters  sheared  off  are	 saved
			     internally	 until all other options specified are
			     applied to that line.  The	 characters  are  then
			     added at the end of the processed line.

			     For  example, to convert a file with leading dig‐
			     its, one or more tabs, and text on each line,  to
			     a	file  beginning	 with the text, all tabs after
			     the first expanded to spaces, padded with	spaces
			     out to column 72 (or truncated to column 72), and
			     the leading digits placed starting at column  73,
			     the command would be:

RETURN VALUE
       returns one of the following values:

	      No errors encountered.

	      An error occurred.

DIAGNOSTICS
       All diagnostics are fatal.

       was called with a bad option.

       There was no tab on one line.

       Self-explanatory.

       A line exceeds 512 characters
		 after being expanded in the internal work buffer.

       A tab specification is incorrectly formatted,
		 or specified tab stops are not ascending.

       A	 tabspec read from a file (or standard input) must not contain
		 a tabspec referencing another file (or standard input).

WARNINGS
       normally only keeps track of physical characters; however, for the  and
       options,	 keeps	track  of  backspaces  in order to line up tabs in the
       appropriate logical columns.

       does not prompt the user if a tabspec is to be read from	 the  standard
       input (by use of or

       If  the	option is used, and the last option specified was and was pre‐
       ceded by either a or a the tab specification format line will be incor‐
       rect.

SEE ALSO
       csplit(1), tabs(1), fspec(4).

								    newform(1)

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