PR(1) General Commands Manual PR(1)

pr — print files

pr [+page] [−column] [−adFmrt] [−e[char][gap]] [−h header] [−i[char][gap]] [−l lines] [−n[char][width]] [−o offset] [−s[char]] [−w width] [file . . . ]

The pr utility is a printing and pagination filter. If multiple input files are specified, each shall be read, formatted, and written to standard output. By default, the input shall be separated into 66-line pages, each with:

  • A 5-line header that includes the page number, date, time, and the pathname of the file.
  • A 5-line trailer consisting of blank lines.

If standard output is associated with a terminal, diagnostic messages shall be deferred until the pr utility has completed processing. When options specifying multicolumn output are specified, output text columns shall be of equal width; input lines that do not fit into a text column shall be truncated. By default, text columns shall be separated with at least one <blank>.

The pr utility shall conform to the utility argument syntax guidelines described in 2.10.2, except that: the page option has a ’+’ delimiter; page and column can be multidigit numbers; some of the option-arguments are optional; and some of the option-arguments cannot be specified as separate arguments from the preceding option letter. In particular, the −s option does not allow the option letter to be separated from its argument, and the options −e, −i, and −n require that both arguments, if present, not be separated from the option letter. The following options shall be supported by the implementation. In the following option descriptions, column, lines, offset, page, and width are positive decimal integers; gap is a nonnegative decimal integer.

+page Begin output at page number page of the formatted input. −column Produce output that is columns wide (default shall be 1) and is written down each column in the order in which the text is received from the input file. This option should not be used with −m. The options −e and −i shall be assumed for multiple textcolumn output. Whether or not text columns are balanced is

unspecified, but a text column shall never exceed the length of the page (see the −l option). When used with −t, use the minimum number of lines to write the output.

Modify the effect of the -column option so that the columns are filled across the page in a round-robin order (e.g., when column is 2, the first input line heads column 1, the second heads column 2, the third is the second line in column 1, etc.).

Produce output that is double-spaced; append an extra <newline> following every <newline> found in the input. −e[char][gap] Expand each input <tab> to the next greater column position specified by the formula n∗gap+1, where n is an integer > 0. If gap is zero or is omitted, it shall default to 8. All <tab> characters in the input shall be expanded into the appropriate number of <space>s. If any nondigit character, char, is specified, it shall be used as the input tab character.

Use a <form-feed> character for new pages, instead of the default behavior that uses a sequence of <newline> characters.

header

Use the string header to replace the contents of the file operand in the page header. See STANDARD OUTPUT .

−i[char][gap] In output, replace multiple <space>s with <tab>s wherever two or more adjacent <space>s reach column positions gap+1, 2∗gap+1, 3∗gap+1, etc. If gap is zero or is omitted, default <tab> settings at every eighth column position shall be assumed. If any nondigit character, char, is specified, it shall be used as the output <tab> character.

lines

Override the 66-line default and reset the page length to lines. If lines is not greater than the sum of both the header and trailer depths (in lines), the pr utility shall suppress both the header and trailer, as if the −t option were in effect.

Merge files. Standard output shall be formatted so the pr utility writes one line from each file specified by a file operand, side by side into text columns of equal fixed widths, in terms of the number of column positions. Implementations shall support merging of at least nine file operands. −n[char][width] Provide width-digit line numbering (default for width shall be 5). The number shall occupy the first width column positions of each text column of default output or each line of −m output. If char (any nondigit character) is given, it shall be appended to the line number to separate it from whatever follows (default for char shall be a <tab>).

offset

Each line of output shall be preceded by offset <space>s. If the −o option is not specified, the default offset shall be zero. The space taken shall be in addition to the output line width (see −w option below).

Write no diagnostic reports on failure to open files. −s[char] Separate text columns by the single character char instead of by the appropriate number of <space>s (default for char shall be the <tab> character).

Write neither the five-line identifying header nor the five-line trailer usually supplied for each page. Quit writing after the last line of each file without spacing to the end of the page.

width

Set the width of the line to width column positions for multiple text-column output only. If the −w option is not specified and the

option is not specified, the default width shall be 72. If the −w option is not specified and the −s option is specified, the default width shall be 512. For single column output, input lines shall not be truncated.

The following operand shall be supported by the implementation:

file

A pathname of a file to be written. If no file operands are specified, or if a file operand is −, the standard input shall be used.

The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are specified, or if a file operand is −. See Input Files.

The input files shall be text files.

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of pr:

This variable shall determine the locale to use for the locale categories when both LC_ALL and the corresponding environment variable (beginning with LC_ ) do not specify a locale. See 2.6.

This variable shall determine the locale to be used to override any values for locale categories specified by the settings of LANG or any environment variables beginning with LC_.

This variable shall determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (e.g., single- versus multibyte characters in arguments and input files) and which characters are defined as printable (character class print). Nonprintable characters still shall be written to standard output, but shall be not counted for the purpose for column-width and line-length calculations.

This variable shall determine the language in which messages should be written.

This variable shall determine the format of the date and time for use in writing header lines.

This variable shall determine the time zone for use in writing header lines.

If pr receives an interrupt while writing to a terminal, it shall flush all accumulated error messages to the screen before terminating.

The pr utility output shall be a paginated version of the original file (or files). This pagination shall be accomplished using either <form-feed>s or a sequence of <newline>s, as controlled by the −F option. Page headers shall be generated unless the −t option is specified. The page headers shall be of the form: "\n\n%s %s Page %d\n\n\n", <output of date>, <file>, <page number> In the POSIX Locale, the <output of date> field, representing the date and time of last modification of the input file (or the current date and time if the input file is standard input), shall be equivalent to the output of the following command as it would appear if executed at the given time: date "+%b %e %H:%M %Y" without the trailing <newline>, if the page being written is from standard input. If the page being written is not from standard input, in the POSIX Locale, the same format shall be used, but the time used shall be the modification time of the file corresponding to file instead of the current time. When the LC_TIME locale

category is not set to the POSIX Locale, a different format and order of presentation of this field may be used. If the standard input is used instead of a file operand, the <file> field shall be replaced by a null string. If the −h option is specified, the file field shall be replaced by the header argument.

Used only for diagnostic messages.

None.

None.

The pr utility shall exit with one of the following values:

All files were written successfully.

An error occurred.

Default.

To print a numbered list of all files in the current directory: ls -a | pr -n -h "Files in $(pwd)."

This utility is one of those that does not follow the Utility Syntax Guidelines because of its historical origins. The working group could have added new options that obeyed the guidelines (and marked the old options obsolescent) or devised an entirely new utility; there are examples of both actions in this standard. For this utility, it chose to leave some of the options as they are because of their heavy usage by existing applications. However, due to interest in the international

community, the developers of the standard have agreed to provide an alternative syntax for the next version of this standard that conforms to the spirit of the Utility Syntax Guidelines. This new syntax will be accompanied by the existing syntax, marked as obsolescent. System implementors are encouraged to develop and promulgate a new syntax for pr, perhaps using a different utility name, that can be adopted for the next version of this standard. Implementations are required to accept option arguments to the −h, −l, −o, and −w options whether presented as part of the same argument or as a separate argument to pr, as suggested by the utility syntax guidelines. The −n and −s options, however, are specified as in historical practice because they are frequently specified without their optional arguments. If a <blank> were allowed before the option-argument in these cases, a file operand could mistakenly be interpreted as an option-argument in historical applications. Historical implementations of the pr utility have differed in the action taken for the −f option. uses it as described here for the −F option; System V uses it to change trailing <newline>s on each page to a <form-feed> and, if standard output is a device, sends an <alert> to standard error and reads a line from /dev/tty before the first page. Draft 9 incorrectly specified part of the System V behavior, raising several ballot objections. There were strong arguments from both sides of this issue concerning existing practice and additional arguments against the System V −f behavior, on the grounds that it was not a modular design to have the behavior of an option change depending on where output is directed. Therefore, the −f option is not specified and the −F option has been added. The −p option was omitted since it represents a purely interactive usage.

The <output of date> field in the −l format is specified only for the POSIX Locale. As noted, the format can be different in other locales. No mechanism for defining this is present in this standard, as the appropriate vehicle is a messaging system; i.e., the format should be specified as a ‘‘message.’’

September 1991 posix.fail