FOLD(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 27 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 FOLD(1) — the manual, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about fold 💅

✨ NAME ✨

fold — wrap each input line to fit in specified width 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

fold [OPTION]... [FILE]...

that's it. that's the whole vibe. options then files, no notes. 👑

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So the whole thing fold does? It wraps input lines in each FILE, and writes the result to standard output. That's literally it. It's giving "your long line is too long, let me gently tuck it in" energy. 🫶

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, it reads standard input. Classic. stdin girlies rise. 🌈

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. fr fr, that's not me being dramatic, that's the actual rule. 🔥

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -b, --bytes — count bytes rather than columns. not characters, not columns, bytes. okay? 💀
  • -c, --characters — count characters rather than columns. the character-counting icon. ✨
  • -s, --spaces — break after blanks, or in words greater than WIDTH. so it's polite about spaces when it can be, and still does the thing when a single word is just built different. 😤
  • *-w, --width=WIDTH* — use WIDTH columns instead of 80. yes, 80 is the default. you're not imagining it. 🍓
  • --help — display this help and exit. your little safety net bestie. 🎀
  • --version — output version information and exit. for when you need to know exactly which era of fold you're living in. ⭐

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by David MacKenzie. king behavior honestly. 🫶

😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

Found a bug? Don't suffer in silence, tell the people:

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. no cap, that's the actual legal situation, not me being cute about it. 🙈

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

  • fmt(1) — the other one. the cousin. the parallel-universe fold. 👯

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/fold> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) fold invocation'

and that's the whole page bestie!! this one's from GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026 — so like, a little time capsule moment. go wrap some lines, you're gonna slay. 💖✨🎀

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