Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> writes:
> I just looked at coreutils-6.9 and 5.97 and neither manual has a mention
> of COLUMNS. Seems this is some Debian manual addition or something. I
> don't see it on Ubuntu 7.10 either.
You're looking in the wrong place. See "info ls".
regards, tom lane