Linux fmt Guide

Complete beginner-friendly guide to fmt on Linux, covering Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions including text formatting, line wrapping, and paragraph formatting.

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Table of Contents

1. fmt Basics
2. Text Formatting
3. Line Width
4. Paragraph Formatting
5. Troubleshooting

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fmt Basics

Format Text

Basic usage:

# Format text
fmt file.txt

# Formats text to default width (75 chars)

From Input

Pipe input:

# Format from input
echo "Long line of text here" | fmt

# Wraps text to default width

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Text Formatting

Default Width

75 characters:

# Default width (75)
fmt file.txt

# Wraps to 75 characters per line

Custom Width

Set width:

# Custom width
fmt -w 60 file.txt

# -w = width (60 characters)

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Line Width

Narrow Format

Narrow lines:

# Narrow format
fmt -w 40 file.txt

# 40 characters per line

Wide Format

Wide lines:

# Wide format
fmt -w 100 file.txt

# 100 characters per line

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Paragraph Formatting

Preserve Paragraphs

Keep paragraphs:

# Preserve paragraphs
fmt -p ">" file.txt

# -p = prefix (preserves lines with prefix)

Uniform Spacing

Uniform spacing:

# Uniform spacing
fmt -u file.txt

# -u = uniform (uniform spacing)

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Troubleshooting

fmt Not Found

Check installation:

# fmt is part of coreutils
# Usually pre-installed

# Check fmt
which fmt

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Summary

This guide covered fmt usage, text formatting, and line wrapping for Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions.

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Next Steps

• fold Guide - Line wrapping
• Text Processing - Text manipulation
• sed Guide - Text processing
• fmt Documentation: man fmt

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This guide covers Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other Linux distributions. For distribution-specific details, refer to your distribution's documentation.