Linux – Print command

'pr' command

This command helps in formatting the file for printing on the terminal. There are many options available with this command which help in making desired format changes on the file. The most used 'pr' options are listed below.

Option	Function
-x	Divides the data into 'x' columns
-h "header"	Assigns "header" value as the report header
-t	Does not print the header and top/bottom margins
-d	Double spaces the output file
-n	Denotes all line with numbers
-l page length	Defines the lines (page length) in a page. Default is 56
-o margin	Formats the page in accordance with the margin number

Dividing data into columns 

'Tools' is a file.

 

We want its content to be arranged in three columns. The syntax for the same would be:

pr -x Filename 

The '-x' option with the 'pr' command divides the data into x columns.

Assigning a header

The syntax is:

pr -h "Header" Filename

The '-h' options assigns "header" value as the report header

 

Denoting all lines with numbers

The syntax is:

pr -n Filename

This command denotes all the lines in the file with numbers

These are some of the 'pr' command options that you can use to modify the file format.

Printing a file 

Once done with the formatting and it is time to get a hard copy of the file, we need to use the following command:

lp Filename

or

lpr Filename

In case we want to print multiple copies of the file, we can use the number modifier.

 

In case we have multiple printers configured, we can specify a particular printer using the Printer modifier