vis is a filter for converting non-printable characters into a visual representation. It differs from ‘cat -v' in that the form is unique and invertible. By default, all non-graphic characters except space, tab, and newline are encoded. A detailed description of the various visual formats is given in
vis(3).
The options are as follows:
-b
Turns off prepending of backslash before up-arrow control sequences and meta characters, and disables the doubling of backslashes. This produces output which is neither invertible or precise, but does represent a minimum of change to the input. It is similar to “cat -v”. (VIS_NOSLASH)
-c
Request a format which displays a small subset of the non-printable characters using C-style backslash sequences. (VIS_CSTYLE)
-e extra
Also encode characters in
extra, per
svis(3).
-F foldwidth
Causes
vis to fold output lines to foldwidth columns (default 80), like
fold(1), except that a hidden newline sequence is used, (which is removed when inverting the file back to its original form with
unvis(1)). If the last character in the encoded file does not end in a newline, a hidden newline sequence is appended to the output. This makes the output usable with various editors and other utilities which typically don't work with partial lines.
-h
Encode using the URI encoding from RFC 1808. (VIS_HTTPSTYLE)
-l
Mark newlines with the visible sequence ‘\$', followed by the newline.
-m
Encode using the MIME Quoted-Printable encoding from RFC 2045. (VIS_MIMESTYLE)
-n
Turns off any encoding, except for the fact that backslashes are still doubled and hidden newline sequences inserted if
-f or
-F is selected. When combined with the
-f flag,
vis becomes like an invertible version of the
fold(1) utility. That is, the output can be unfolded by running the output through
unvis(1).
-o
Request a format which displays non-printable characters as an octal number, \ddd. (VIS_OCTAL)
-s
Only characters considered unsafe to send to a terminal are encoded. This flag allows backspace, bell, and carriage return in addition to the default space, tab and newline. (VIS_SAFE)
-t
Tabs are also encoded. (VIS_TAB)
-w
White space (space-tab-newline) is also encoded. (VIS_WHITE)