Questions tagged [text-formatting]
Questions about using command-line utilities such as awk, sed, perl, pr, etc. to format text files. For printf format strings, use the [printf] tag. For date format strings, [date]. See also the [text-processing] tag.
615 questions
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Wrap long lines using GNU sed
The following expression is reasonably effective at wrapping long lines of text (for the purpose of dumping to my 128 characters wide terminal window and reading):
s~(.{104,124}) ~\1\n~g
This ...
- 864
1
vote
2
answers
62
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Can I get the "detox" command to not change multiple hyphens to a single hyphen?
The detox command replaces multiple consecutive hyphens with single hyphens.
For example, temp----tmp___tump.tmp becomes temp-tmp_tump.tmp.
Can I modify its behaviour so that it keeps multiple ...
2
votes
1
answer
198
views
`printf` and `time` formatting issues in a `zsh` shell script
I have the following (excerpt from a) zsh shell script (the FOLDER environment variable is exported earlier in the code):
# Create temporary directory
export TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
# Set TIMEFMT to ...
- 209
1
vote
2
answers
83
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How to pretty print one column of piped input?
bash 4.4.20 and jq-1.6 on RHEL8
I get this nice output from jq and column. Hard to read, though.
pgbackrest info --output=json \
| jq -r '.[] | .backup[] | "\(.type) \(.label) \(.info.delta)...
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0
votes
1
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55
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Storing the iterations of the Receiver (or node) number and RSSI value into a file
I'm quite new to Linux. Recently, I've been able to create a bash script that allows me to obtain the RSSI of the receivers (or node) with a running iteration. How can I store these results in an text ...
-4
votes
1
answer
90
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file format help [closed]
input file
Env Status (PRE)
tomcat1
|-- Status : Running | Host : VVV | pid/s : 7427
|-- Status : Running | Host : VVV | pid/s : 489
|-- Status : Running |...
0
votes
2
answers
97
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In a text file, finding and deleting lines including (e.g.) "#', or a word? [duplicate]
I am using Ubuntu Linux and Mageia Linux...
I wish to do the following:
in a text file (sample.txt), find and delete every line comprising the symbol '#' (or '?') or a specific word (e.g. 'mobile')
...
- 11
1
vote
2
answers
363
views
Extracting table of contents from PDFs
I have a reasonably large personal library with books in various formats. I have tried to organize their metadata, including a text field containing the tables of contents. At the moment I am using ...
- 13
0
votes
3
answers
312
views
How to edit a string matching a pattern in a specific field on the condition another string is not present on the same line
I need to edit the string "NA" to "Na" only if it is in the 6th field of a file. I can currently achieve this with:
awk '{gsub("NA","Na",$6)}1' $filename
...
- 3
0
votes
4
answers
232
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Aligning space separated words in columns
There is a text file, file.txt. In there is:
abc 01245
def-1 32154
ghi-3 55432
jkl 44121
mno-4 23147
pqr 897044
....
How to format this to an output like this:
abc 01245
def-1 32154
ghi-3 55432
jkl ...
- 539
0
votes
0
answers
61
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is a cell boldface
I'm looking for a function to determine if a cell is formatted bold. I'm using LibreOffice Calc, and for ease of use, I have a range of items to buy and their prices. I want to have a simple method of ...
2
votes
1
answer
421
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Cannot open an .mbox file with neomutt (although it works with mutt)
Cannot open an .mbox file with mutt
I want to open a 10GB .mbox file that I downloaded from my gmail account. When I use the command
neomutt -f 10GB_mboxfile.mbox
neomutt takes 10-20 seconds to open ...
- 495
0
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0
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80
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Different format in .mbox and email saved locally with mutt: convert split .mbox file into the same format as mutt?
I am trying to move to mutt for mail client and am trying to have email localy. I have 2 sources of saved email:
the first one was obtained from the .mbox file form google: I wrote a script which ...
- 495
0
votes
1
answer
862
views
How do I change the date/time format in syslog-ng from `mmm [d]d hh:mm:ss` to `yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss`?
I noticed that the default datetime format for logs in /var/log/messages is mmm [d]d hh:mm:ss, for example:
Jan 4 03:46:50 1.2.3.4 ntpclient[6952]: Failed resolving address to hostname pool.ntp.org: ...
- 159
0
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2
answers
81
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process a text file to modify a column value based on maximum value from another column
I have a file that i am looking to modify. There are 100's of files having the same issue.
the input file is below
sample1 100A total 1 1000
sample2 100A total 1 5584
sample3 100A ...
- 19
1
vote
2
answers
275
views
Reformat text to exact width [duplicate]
On Ubuntu, how to reformat text to fit width (except final line), adding spaces where necessary? The closest I can get is with fmt --width=64, but this does not add the spaces between words.
Input
...
1
vote
1
answer
85
views
How do I format the output of cut to the following format? [duplicate]
last part of the command:
| cut -d' ' -f3
output:
4
10
required format:
4,10
I'm guessing echo (and sort?) is to be used in some way, but I can't quite place my finger on it.
- 159
2
votes
1
answer
75
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text formatter that supports bullets
I am looking for a formatter to use with my git commits. par pretty much does what I want, with the (important) limitation that I can't get it to properly format bullet lists, which are pretty common ...
- 181
0
votes
0
answers
201
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Find and replace in CudaText editor
So I have dump from U-boot and I need to replace specific string in CudaText editor.
Here is mine text
e101b1e0: 30ef27d8 e792f415 9beea618 5c601de4 .'.0..........`\
e101b1f0: aeaf9d25 e1dd63e9 ...
- 185
-2
votes
1
answer
661
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Template for formatting output as a dynamic table in bash
I have a created a simple script which is using the ps aux command to give information for a process entered by a user, and presents the output in a table like format (something like the mysql shell ...
- 11
2
votes
0
answers
62
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Generate upper-case in a udev rule?
I have a use case with cross-platform context which makes me want to generate symlinks under a /dev/disk/by-X directory that have an uppercase version of data returned by blkid.
Is there a built-in ...
- 274
1
vote
1
answer
84
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Sed - replace a string with a character of another line
I am trying to write a script to reformat some text.
pages:
page1:
gui-rows: 6
items:
'6':
material: CAT_SPAWN_EGG
buy: 999999999
sell: -1
'7':
...
- 11
3
votes
5
answers
788
views
How can I reformat blocks of data until the end of the file is reached?
I have a file that looks like this:
# Time-averaged data for fix avetimeall
# TimeStep Number-of-rows
# Row c_gyrationchunkall
1000 3
1 2.09024e-14
2 4.88628
3 5.69321
2000 3
1 2.10518e-14
2 8.33702
3 ...
1
vote
1
answer
124
views
How to preprocess output of any CLI Tool in realtime?
For context, what I am trying to do is add a preprocessor to a REPL, more specifically, nix repl. Although this would probably apply to any other REPL like application.
The reason for it is that I ...
- 273
1
vote
5
answers
171
views
Add two delimiters after every sixth comma
I'm trying to expand on this question but can't figure out this issue:
Let's say I've got a file roll.txt:
echo "'123456789','987651234','129873645','213456789','987612345','543216789','432156789'...
- 123
1
vote
2
answers
288
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Recursive pattern search - output formating: for each match file print out the specific file name "\n", line number, sentence matched "\n" in colors
I want a file content search command, under Linux so that:
it will search on specified files, e.g: md, txt, htm.
recursively from the folder and its subfolders, e.g: .
the content search can be ...
- 69
0
votes
0
answers
109
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How can I parse the output of w to collect current user sessions?
I want to parse the output of w so I can collect current user sessions and record them via telegraf. However, it only provides space separated output and I'm not sure how to reliably parse this ...
3
votes
2
answers
123
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fixing or finding an alternative to bad 'paste <(jcal) <(ccal)' output
(I don't have a high enough reputation to comment my question into: how to show stdout outputs of two programs side by side )
I've tried paste <(jcal) <(ccal)
but the output is messed up.
jcal; ...
- 145
1
vote
2
answers
77
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Change irregular header with extra whitespace
I am working with data in this obscure file format:
SNP A1 A2 F1 I1 F2 I2 F3 I3
rs0001 A C 0.02 0.00 1.99
(Note the whitespace around the first three fields)
The header is long (500k ...
- 125
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votes
2
answers
60
views
How to group matching data from first two column [closed]
I would like to group data from first two fields as per below
Sample Data:
CHECK|checkadm|block1
CHECK|checkadm|block2
CHECK|checkadm|block3
CHECK|checkadm|block4
TEST|testadm|block1
TEST|testadm|...
- 3
-1
votes
3
answers
249
views
Joining multiple lines based on a regex
I have the output of a pandoc conversion to HTML which looks like this:
foo
bar
<blockquote>
That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind
A new line and another quote
</...
- 101
1
vote
1
answer
177
views
"par" formatter does not retain tab indentation
I'm writing code in Vi and using the par text formatter (similar to fmt, but IMHO better) to format block comments. The issue is that I can't get par to keep the literal tabs I use for indentation. ...
- 356k
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How can I pretty-print or beautify GraphQL text from the command line?
I have a GraphQL query in GetPerson.gql that is all scrunched up on a single line:
{ getPerson(id: 42) { name, age } }
How can I pretty-print or beautify this text using the command line?
$ magical-...
- 19.4k
1
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1
answer
299
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Script to select a PulseAudio sink from an ordered list and use its name as command input
I wish to write a bash script that will create a PulseAudio loopback device between an audio source and a bluetooth device.
(Context - skippable)
The list of such devices, as well as their PulseAudio ...
- 1,202
1
vote
1
answer
307
views
pretty-print css one-liner
I (human) would like to read this ~30000 chars long line of CSS.
@font-face{font-family:KaTeX_Script;src:url(/static/fonts/KaTeX_Script-Regular.af7bc98.woff2) format("woff2"),url(/static/...
4
votes
3
answers
2k
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Visually aligning columns of a CSV file
Using sed or awk, is it possible to visually align columns in a CSV file?
For example:
e.g. from:
a,b,c,some stuff,"some, other, stuff",d,2023-03-10 18:37:00
y,x,z,t,cool,thing,2022-04-12 21:...
- 521
3
votes
1
answer
2k
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How to print leading zeros (padding) in awk?
I am trying to print 99.11111 as 099.11 in AWK.
I have tried the following variations without success.
$ awk '{printf ("%000.2f\n", $1);}' <<< 99.111111
99.11
$ awk '{printf ("%...
- 1,043
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1
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86
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How can I format the output of a shell command into columns, but limit the number of columns created?
Say I run
systemctl | grep running | column -t
I get an output that looks like this:
init.scope loaded active running System and Service Manager
session-...
- 129
3
votes
2
answers
390
views
How to Replace Multiple Lines using Files on Termux
Assume I have many *.txt files on directory texts with the below contents.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus.
Vestibulum auctor dapibus neque.
...
- 63
3
votes
2
answers
221
views
Indent Fortran source code, propagate indentation down to unindented special lines
I'm trying to write my own script to improve some auto-formatting before commiting to a remote repository. I use indenting guides in my IDE and the autoformatters available for my language (FORTRAN) ...
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How does awk print the columns in right-justify?
I have INPUT data like this:
V 0.886 3.768 -2.882
C -0.082 3.768 -3.850
M -0.900 3.769 4.669
F -0.001 3.768 -3.769
I expect OUTPUT formatting like this:
V 0.886 3.768 -2.882
C -0.082 3.768 ...
- 123
1
vote
3
answers
111
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Writing bash arguments with trunctation
I want to print the first two arguments of a bash function, with the unicode character \u2263 on each side using a two space separation. The thing is that the final unicode must display at column 70. ...
- 1,373
0
votes
3
answers
90
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Add custom delimiter in key-value pair
I have data which are in "Key:value" form (901 S 902 M 905 F 906 WAPENC 907 31 908 371 909 38765469947/TYPE=PLMN and so on ) where keys are 901,902,905,906.....so on and respective values ...
- 23
2
votes
2
answers
144
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Add custom delimiter in key-value form data
I have data which are in "Key:value" form where keys are 901,902,903,904 and respective values are S,M,F,WAP`, with space as delimiter.
Input example
901 S 902 M 903 F 904 WAP .....
I want ...
- 23
0
votes
2
answers
230
views
How to echo a string inside a category in a ini file with quotes
I have an ini file like for example
[Admin Prefixes]
# Here you can add custom prefixes to specific players or flags that are shown when using $admin_prefix$.
# Syntax: "type" "info&...
- 378
0
votes
2
answers
466
views
convert xterm256 to ansi
I have a program that will only accept ANSI color input but I have reason to feed it the output of a program that outputs xterm256 color codes. Is there a converter? I realize of course that color ...
- 2,615
2
votes
1
answer
152
views
Arithmetic operation in terminal from an output
I want to print the lines of updates via this command
dnf check-update --refresh --q --downloadonly | wc -l
However during the output there occurs a blank line which means the true update number is ...
- 153
0
votes
1
answer
251
views
highlight command refuses to change theme
$ highlight -l -s clarity -S sh -O ansi some_file
No matter what I try, highlight always shows the same theme. And it is supposed to create a file 'highlight.css' but it doesn't. What am I doing ...
- 2,615
1
vote
3
answers
321
views
text processing rows to columns for a block of lines Awk
i have input file like below .i need to reformat the text as o/p mentioned.
I using the awk got from this forum but it is displayed based on the List A columns count.
Please help
awk 'BEGIN{ max=0 }
...
- 393
0
votes
1
answer
127
views
How to follow logs while avoiding line wrapping w/ horizontal scroll enabled?
In the terminal, if I don't want to have logs of a program wrap, I can pipe those to less -S.
However, horizontal scroll with keyboard doesn't work unless I Ctrl+C, and after that, I don't know how to ...
- 101