35.23 Rotating Text

Every now and then you come across something and say, "Gee, that might come in handy someday, but I have no idea for what." This might happen to you when you're browsing at a flea market or garage sale; or if you're like us, it might happen when you're browsing through public domain software.

$ cat file      $ rot file      $ rot file |      $ rot file |
                                     rot              rot | rot
 abcde           54321                 5             e
1                     a                4             d
2                     b                3             c
3                     c                2             b
4                     d                1             a
5                     e           edcba               12345

Now let's compare combinations of rot and tail -r (25.19):

$ cat file      $ rot file      $ rot file |      $ tail -r file |
                                     tail -r           rot
 abcde           54321                 e              12345
1                     a                d             a
2                     b                c             b
3                     c                b             c
4                     d                a             d
5                     e           54321              e

rot rotates the text 90 degrees. tail -r turns the text "upside down" (last line in becomes the first line out, and so forth).

rot can also rotate the output of banner (43.11) to print down a page instead of across. By now, we hope you have an idea of what rot can do!