#

| Chapter 2 UNIX Commands |

## newform

    newform [options] files

Format `files` according to the options specified. newform resembles cut and paste and can be used to filter text output. Options can appear more than once and can be interspersed between `files` (except for -s, which must appear first).

### Options

-a[`n`]

  Append `n` characters to the end of each line or, if `n` isn't specified, append characters until each line has the length specified by -l.

-b[`n`]

  Delete `n` characters from beginning of each line or, if `n` isn't specified, delete characters until each line has the length specified by -l.

-c`m`

  Use character `m` (instead of a space) when padding lines with -a or -p;

-e[`n`]

  Same as -b but delete from the end. -c must precede -a or -p.

-f

  Display `tabspec` format used by last -o option.

-i'`tabspec`'

  Expand tabs to spaces using `tabspec` conversion (default is 8 spaces); `tabspec` is one of the options listed under tabs.

-l[`n`]

  Use line length `n` (default is 72). If -l is not specified, default line length is 80. -l usually precedes other options that modify line length (-b, -e, -c, -a, or -p).

-o'`tabspec`'

  Turn spaces into tabs using `tabspec` conversion.

-p[`n`]

  Same as -a but pad beginning of line.

-s

  Strip leading characters from each line (up to and including first tab); the first seven characters are moved to the end of the line (without the tab). All lines must contain at least one tab.

### Example

Remove sequence numbers from a COBOL program:

>     newform -l1 -b7 file

Reference: nawk |  | Reference: newgrp