Linux fold Guide

Complete beginner-friendly guide to fold on Linux, covering Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions including line wrapping, text folding, and width limiting.

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Table of Contents

1. fold Basics
2. Line Wrapping
3. Width Control
4. Byte vs Character
5. Troubleshooting

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fold Basics

Wrap Lines

Basic usage:

# Wrap lines
fold file.txt

# Wraps to default width (80)

Custom Width

Set width:

# Custom width
fold -w 60 file.txt

# -w = width (60 characters)

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Line Wrapping

Default Width

80 characters:

# Default width (80)
fold file.txt

# Wraps to 80 characters

Narrow Lines

Narrow wrap:

# Narrow wrap
fold -w 40 file.txt

# 40 characters per line

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Width Control

Wide Lines

Wide wrap:

# Wide wrap
fold -w 120 file.txt

# 120 characters per line

No Limit

No wrapping:

# No wrapping (very wide)
fold -w 1000 file.txt

# Very wide lines

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Byte vs Character

Byte Count

Count bytes:

# Byte count (default)
fold -b -w 80 file.txt

# -b = bytes (counts bytes, not characters)

Character Count

Count characters:

# Character count (default)
fold -w 80 file.txt

# Counts characters (handles UTF-8)

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Troubleshooting

fold Not Found

Check installation:

# fold is part of coreutils
# Usually pre-installed

# Check fold
which fold

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Summary

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

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Next Steps

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

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