FOLD(1)                 FreeBSD General Commands Manual                FOLD(1)

NAME
     fold - fold long lines for finite width output device

SYNOPSIS
     fold [-bs] [-w width] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The fold utility is a filter which folds the contents of the specified
     files, or the standard input if no files are specified, breaking the
     lines to have a maximum of 80 columns.

     The options are as follows:

     -b      Count width in bytes rather than column positions.

     -s      Fold line after the last blank character within the first width
             column positions (or bytes).

     -w width
             Specify a line width to use instead of the default 80 columns.
             The width value should be a multiple of 8 if tabs are present, or
             the tabs should be expanded using expand(1) before using fold.

ENVIRONMENT
     The LANG, LC_ALL and LC_CTYPE environment variables affect the execution
     of fold as described in environ(7).

EXAMPLES
     Fold text in standard input with a width of 20 columns:

           $ echo "I am smart enough to know that I am dumb" | fold -w 15
           I am smart enou
           gh to know that
            I am dumb

     Same as above but breaking lines after the last blank character:

           $ echo "I am smart enough to know that I am dumb" | fold -s -w 15
           I am smart
           enough to know
           that I am dumb

SEE ALSO
     expand(1), fmt(1)

STANDARDS
     The fold utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 ("POSIX.1").

HISTORY
     The fold utility first appeared in 1BSD.  It was rewritten for
     4.3BSD-Reno to improve speed and modernize style.  The -b and -s options
     were added to NetBSD 1.0 for IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2") compliance.

AUTHORS
     Bill Joy wrote the original version of fold on June 28, 1977.  Kevin
     Ruddy rewrote the command in 1990, and J. T. Conklin added the missing
     options in 1993.

BUGS
     If underlining (see ul(1)) is present it may be messed up by folding.

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6        October 29, 2020        FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6