FMT

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
Index Return to Main Contents

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NAME

fmt - simple optimal text formatter  

SYNOPSIS

fmt [,-WIDTH/] [,OPTION/]... [,FILE/]...  

DESCRIPTION

Reformat each paragraph in the FILE(s), writing to standard output. The option -WIDTH is an abbreviated form of --width=,DIGITS/.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#fm-c'-c, --crown-marginX'tty: link'

preserve indentation of first two lines

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#fm-p'-p, --prefix=,STRINGX'tty: link'/

reformat only lines beginning with STRING, reattaching the prefix to reformatted lines

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#fm-s'-s, --split-onlyX'tty: link'

split long lines, but do not refill

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#fm-t'-t, --tagged-paragraphX'tty: link'

indentation of first line different from second

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#fm-u'-u, --uniform-spacingX'tty: link'

one space between words, two after sentences

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#fm-w'-w, --width=,WIDTHX'tty: link'/

maximum line width (default of 75 columns)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#fm-g'-g, --goal=,WIDTHX'tty: link'/

goal width (default of 93% of width)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/fmt#fm-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/fmt#fm-version'--versionX'tty: link'

output version information and exit

 

AUTHOR

Written by Ross Paterson.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>  

SEE ALSO

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/fmt>
or available locally via: info aq(coreutils) fmt invocationaq

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO