Ubuntu Manpage: boxes - text mode box and comment drawing filter

NAME

       boxes - text mode box and comment drawing filter

SYNOPSIS

       boxes  [-hlmrv]  [-a format]  [-d design] [-e eol] [-f file] [-i indent] [-k bool] [-n encoding] [-p pad]
       [-q query] [-s size] [-t tabopts] [infile [outfile]]

DESCRIPTION

       Boxes is a text filter which can draw any kind of box around its input text.  Box  design  choices  range
       from simple boxes to complex ASCII art. A box can also be removed and repaired, even if it has been badly
       damaged  by  editing  of  the text inside. Since boxes may be open on any side, boxes can also be used to
       create regional comments in any programming language.  New  box  designs  can  be  added  and  shared  by
       appending to a configuration file.

       boxes  is  a command line tool, but also integrates with any text editor that supports filters. The boxes
       website has examples on how to configure editor integration for various text editors:
       <URL:https://boxes.thomasjensen.com/editors.html>

OPTIONS

Options offered by boxes are the following:

-a string
Alignment/positioning of text inside box. This option takes a format string argument which is read
from left to right. The format string may not contain whitespace and must consist of one or more of
the following components:

hx - horizontal alignment of the input text block inside a potentially larger box. Possible values
for x are l (ell, for left alignment), c (center), or r (right). This does not affect the
justification of text lines within the input text block (use the j argument instead).
vx - vertical alignment of the input text block inside a potentially larger box. Possible values
for x are t (for top alignment), c (center), or b (bottom).
jx - justification of lines within the input text block. Possible values for x are l (ell, for left
justification), c (center), or r (right). This does not affect the alignment of the input text
block itself within the box. Use the h and v arguments for input text block positioning.

Short hand notations (can be combined with the above arguments):
l (ell) - short for hlvcjl
c - short for hcvcjc
r - short for hrvcjr

The factory default setting for -a is hlvt.

-c string
Command line design definition for simple cases. The argument of this option is the definition for
the "west" (W) shape. The defined shape must consist of exactly one line, i.e. no multi-line shapes
are allowed. The -c option is intended as a shortcut for those cases where simple regional comments
are to be created, which only need a certain character or sequence of characters to be placed in
front of every line. In such cases, it is much more convenient to simply specify -c than to do a
complete design definition in one's config file, where the only shape defined is the west shape.
This option implies a -d and does not access the config file. -c may of course be used in
conjunction with any of the other options. By default, -c is not specified.

-d string
Design selection. The one argument of this option is the name of the design to use, which may
either be a design's primary name or any of its alias names.

-e eol
Override line terminator. eol can be CR, LF, or CRLF. The default is to use the system-specific
line terminator, which means CRLF on Windows, and LF otherwise. This option should only be used in
an emergency, because normally the system-specific line terminator will be just fine. This option
is considered experimental, and may go away in a future version of boxes. Let us know in
<URL:https://github.com/ascii-boxes/boxes/issues/60> if you think we should keep it.

-f string
Use alternate config file. The one argument of this option is the name of a valid boxes config
file. The argument of -f can also be a directory which contains a configuration file. More
information on this topic below in the CONFIGURATION FILE section.

--help
-h Print usage information.

-i string
Indentation mode. Possible arguments are text (indent text inside of box), box (indent box, not
text inside of box), or none (throw away indentation). Arguments may be abbreviated. The default is
box.

-k bool
Kill leading/trailing blank lines on removal. The value of bool is either true or false. This
option only takes effect in connection with -r. If set to true, leading and trailing blank lines
will be removed from the output. If set to false, the entire content of the former box is returned.
The default is false, if both the top and the bottom part of the box are open, as is the case with
most regional comments. If the box's design defines a top part or a bottom part, the default is
true.

-l (ell) List designs. Produces a listing of all available box designs in the config file, along with
a sample box and information about its creator. Also checks the syntax of the entire config file.
If used together with -d, displays detailed information about the specified design.

-m Mend box. This removes a (potentially broken) box as with -r, and redraws it afterwards. The mended
box is drawn according to the options given. This may be important to know when it comes to
restoring padding, indentation, etc. for the mended box. Implies -k false.

-n encoding
Character encoding. Overrides the character encoding of the input and output text. Choose from the
list shown by iconv -l. If an invalid character encoding is specified here, UTF-8 is used as a
fallback. The default is to use the system encoding, which is normally the best course of action.
So don't specify this option unless you have to.

-p string
Padding. Specify padding in spaces around the input text block for all sides of the box. The
argument string may not contain whitespace and must consist of a combination of the following
characters, each followed by a number indicating the padding in spaces:
a - (all) give padding for all sides at once
h - (horiz) give padding for both horizontal sides
v - (vertical) give padding for both vertical sides
b - (bottom) give padding for bottom (south) side
l - (left) give padding for left (west) side
t - (top) give padding for top (north) side
r - (right) give padding for right (east) side
Example: -p a4t2 would define the padding to be 4 characters on all sides, except for the top of
the box, where the input text block will be only 2 lines away from the box.
By default, unless specified otherwise in the config file, no padding is used.

-q query
Query designs by tag. In contrast to -l, this will only print the matching design names. This
option is normally used stand-alone; if used in combination with other options, behavior is
undefined. The query argument is a comma-separated list of tags which can be present on a design
in order to match. A tag may optionally be prefixed with + in order to require that it be present,
or with - in order to exclude designs which have that tag. Each tag can only occur once per query.
This option is intended for use by scripts. Alias names are printed below their primary design
name, and postfixed with (alias).
Example: boxes -q programming,-comment

-r Remove an existing box. Which design to use is detected automatically. In order to save time or in
case the detection does not decide correctly, combine with -d to specify the design. The default is
to draw a new box.

-s widthxheight
Box size. This option specifies the desired box size in units of columns (for width) and lines (for
height). If only a single number is given as argument, this number specifies the desired box
width. A single number prefixed by 'x' specifies only the box height. The actual resulting box
size may vary depending on the individual shape sizes of the chosen design. Also, other command
line options may influence the box size (such as -p).
By default, the smallest possible box is created around the text.

-t string
Tab handling. This option controls how tab characters in the input text are handled. The option
string must always begin with a uint number indicating the distance between tab stops. It is
important that this value be set correctly, or tabulator characters will upset your input text.
The correct tab distance value depends on the settings used for the text you are processing. A
common value is 8.
Immediately following the tab distance, an optional character can be appended, telling boxes how to
treat the leading tabs. The following options are available:
e - expand tabs into spaces
k - keep tabs as close to what they were as possible
u - unexpand tabs. This makes boxes turn as many spaces as possible into tabs.

In order to maintain backwards compatibility, the -t string can be just a number. In that case, e
is assumed for tab handling, which removes all tabs and replaces them with spaces. The factory
default for the -t option is simply 8, which is just such a case.
For example, you could specify -t 4u in order to have your leading tabs unexpanded. In the box
content, tabs are always converted into spaces. The tab distance in this example is 4.

-v Print out current version number.

CONFIGURATION FILE

Boxes will look for the configuration file in several places, some of which are given by the XDG
specification.

1. -f option [file or dir]
When a configuration file is specified on the command line, we will use that. The -f option can
also specify a directory. Any location specified via -f must exist, or boxes will terminate with an
error.

2. BOXES environment variable [file or dir]
If no config file is specified on the command line, boxes will check for the BOXES environment
variable, which may contain a filename or directory to use. Any location specified via the BOXES
environment variable must exist, or boxes will terminate with an error.

3. $HOME [dir]
4. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/boxes [dir]
5. $HOME/.config/boxes [dir]
6. /etc/boxes/boxes-config [file]
7. /etc/xdg/boxes [dir]
8. /usr/local/share/boxes [dir]
9. /usr/share/boxes [dir]
Either one of these last two directory locations might have the same name as the global config file
from 6. That's fine. It just means that we first look for a file of that name, and then for a
directory containing the file.

The XDG environment variable XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is not supported. However, its default value is supported
via steps 8 and 9 above.

In the above list, whenever a step is designated with [dir], the following file names will be found, in
this order:
1. .boxes
2. box-designs
3. boxes-config
4. boxes

As soon as the first valid file is found, we use that and stop the search.

The recommended location for a user-specific configuration file is $HOME/.boxes or
$HOME/.config/boxes/.boxes. A global configuration file should be located at /etc/boxes/boxes-config. But
all of the other locations are fully supported, too.

The syntax of boxes config files is described on the website at
<URL:https://boxes.thomasjensen.com/config-syntax.html>.

EXAMPLES

       Examples    on    how    to    invoke    boxes     may     be     found     on     the     website     at
       <URL:https://boxes.thomasjensen.com/examples.html>.
       Try

       echo "Good Bye World!" | boxes -d nuke

       Boxes also combines nicely with other tools. Try

       figlet "boxes . . . !" | lolcat -f | boxes -d unicornthink

AVAILABILITY

       The boxes website is <URL:https://boxes.thomasjensen.com/>. It contains a number of examples illustrating
       this manual page as well as more in-depth documentation.

AUTHOR

       Boxes was made by Thomas Jensen and the boxes contributors. It has been lovingly maintained since 1999.
       For a full list of contributors, see
       <URL:https://boxes.thomasjensen.com/team.html#contributors>
       and <URL:https://github.com/ascii-boxes/boxes/graphs/contributors>.
       Please refer to the boxes website for the maintainer's current email address.

VERSION

       This is boxes version 2.2.1.

LICENSE

       boxes  is  free  software  under  the  terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3. Details in the
       LICENSE file: <URL:https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ascii-boxes/boxes/v2.2.1/LICENSE>

ENVIRONMENT

       Boxes recognizes the following environment variables:

       BOXES
             Absolute path of the boxes configuration file. If this is specified, it must refer to  an  existing
             file or directory.

       HOME
             The user's home directory.

       XDG_CONFIG_HOME
             The root of the configuration file location as per the XDG specification.