bug#13786: pr command does not fold

[Assaf Gordon]

Hello,

Doh Smith wrote, On 02/22/2013 05:14 AM:
> I could not get the pr command to fold the lines. Is this a bug?
> I am using pr (GNU coreutils) 8.13 under GNU bash 4.2.24.

I think 'pr' does the pagination and columnation, but doesn't actual re-folds 
(=wraps) lines to your desired length.
It is 'fmt' that can split long lines and join short lines.

> 
> Here is an example - the following pr command produced an output that
> instead of folding a long line of text in the first column, it cuts it off:
> 
> $ echo "Snow with areas of blowing snow.  Low around 24. East wind around
> 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.  Chance of precipitation is 100%.
> Total nighttime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible." | pr -F
> --columns=2
> 
> 2013-02-22 04:08                                                  Page 1
> 
> 
> Snow with areas of blowing snow.  L
> 

Example with pr and fmt:
========================
$ TEXT="Snow with areas of blowing snow.  Low around 24. East wind around
15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.  Chance of precipitation is 100%.
Total nighttime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible."

##
## Re-fold into one column of 34 characters
##
$ echo "$TEXT" | fmt -w 34
Snow with areas of blowing snow.
Low around 24. East wind around 15
mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Chance of precipitation is 100%.
Total nighttime snow accumulation
of 2 to 4 inches possible.

##
## Columnate the text
##
$ echo "$TEXT" | fmt -w 34 | pr -F --columns=2
2013-02-22 14:08                                                  Page 1


Snow with areas of blowing snow.    is 100%.  Total nighttime snow
Low around 24. East wind around     accumulation of 2 to 4 inches
15 mph, with gusts as high as       possible.
25 mph.  Chance of precipitation
=======

Notes:
1. 34 characters was chosen because the default page length of pr is 72 (and 
you want 2 columns + separator).

2. "pr -F" doesn't mean "fold", it means "use form-feed to separate pages" - 
just making sure you intended to use that.

HTH,
 -gordon