NAME
elvfmt - adjust line-length for paragraphs of text
SYNOPSIS
elvfmt [-w width | -width] [-s] [-c] [-i chars] [-C] [-M] [file]...
VERSION
This page describes the Elvis 2.2_0 version of elvfmt. See elvis(1).
DESCRIPTION
elvfmt is a simple text formatter. It inserts or deletes newlines, as
necessary, to make all lines in a paragraph be approximately the same
width. It preserves indentation and word spacing.
If you don’t name any files on the command line, then elvfmt will read
from stdin.
It is typically used from within vi(1) or elvis(1) to adjust the line
breaks in a single paragraph. To do this, move the cursor to the top
of the paragraph, type "!}elvfmt", and hit <Return>.
OPTIONS
-w width or -width
Use a line width of width characters instead of the default of
72 characters.
-s Don’t join lines shorter than the line width to fill paragraphs.
-c Try to be smarter about crown margins. Specifically, this tells
elvfmt to expect the first line of each paragraph to have a
different indentation than subsequent lines. If text from the
first input line is wrapped onto the second output line, then
elvfmt will scan ahead to figure out what indentation it should
use for the second output line, instead of reusing the first
line’s indentation.
-i chars
Allow the indentation text to include any character from chars,
in addition to spaces and tabs. You should quote the chars list
to protect it from the shell.
-C and -M
These are shortcuts for combinations of other flags. is short
for and is useful for reformatting C/C++ comments. is short
for and is useful for reformatting email messages.
SEE ALSO
vi(1), elvis(1)
AUTHOR
Steve Kirkendall
kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu