snippetbashTip

col — Filter reverse line feeds from input. More information: <https://manned.org/col>.

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

Viewed 0 times

filtercommandfeedsfromclireversecolline

linux

Problem

How to use the col command: Filter reverse line feeds from input. More information: <https://manned.org/col>.

col — Filter reverse line feeds from input. More information: <https://manned.org/col>.

Filter reverse line feeds from input:

{{command}} | col

Filter reverse line feeds and output with spaces instead of tabs:

{{command}} | col {{[-x|--spaces]}}

Remove backspaces, output only the last character written to each position:

{{command}} | col {{[-b|--no-backspaces]}}

Specify a buffer size with a specific number of lines:

{{command}} | col {{[-l|--lines]}} {{num}}

Format a manual page for viewing with less:

man ls | col {{[-b|--no-backspaces]}} | less

Process a file with reverse line feeds and save the cleaned output:

cat {{path/to/input_file}} | col {{[-x|--spaces]}} > {{output_file}}

Filter reverse line feeds from input

{{command}} | col

Filter reverse line feeds and output with spaces instead of tabs

{{command}} | col {{[-x|--spaces]}}

Remove backspaces, output only the last character written to each position

{{command}} | col {{[-b|--no-backspaces]}}

Specify a buffer size with a specific number of lines

{{command}} | col {{[-l|--lines]}} {{num}}

Format a manual page for viewing with `less`

man ls | col {{[-b|--no-backspaces]}} | less

tldr-pages: linux/col

No revisions yet.