UNFLATTEN(1) General Commands Manual UNFLATTEN(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

unflatten - adjust directed graphs to improve layout aspect ratio

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**unflatten** \[**-f?**] \[**-llen**] \[**-clen** ] \[ **-o** *outfile* ] \[ files ]

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

**unflatten** is a preprocessor to **dot** that is used to improve the aspect ratio of graphs having many leaves or disconnected nodes. The usual layout for such a graph is very wide or tall. **unflatten** creates chains with invisible edges or adjusts the **minlen** on edges to improve layout compaction.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

The following options are supported:

[**-l len**](#l)

The **minlen** of leaf edges is staggered between 1 and *len* (a small integer).

[**-f**](#f)

Applies the **-l** option to fanout nodes whose indegree and outdegree are both 1. This helps with structures such as *a -> {w x y z} -> b*. This option only works if the **-l** flag is set.

[**-c len**](#c)

Form disconnected nodes into chains of up to *len* edges.

[**-o outfile**](#o)

causes the output to be written to the specified file; by default, output is written to **stdout**.

**-?**

Prints the usage and exits.

# [OPERANDS](#OPERANDS)

The following operand is supported:

[*files*](#files)

Names of files containing 1 or more graphs in dot format. If no *files* operand is specified, the standard input will be used.

# [AUTHORS](#AUTHORS)

Stephen C. North <north@research.att.com>  
Emden R. Gansner <erg@research.att.com>

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[gc(1)](/man/os/graphviz/gc.1), [dot(1)](/man/os/graphviz/dot.1), [acyclic(1)](/man/os/graphviz/acyclic.1), [gvpr(1)](/man/os/graphviz/gvpr.1), [gvcolor(1)](/man/os/graphviz/gvcolor.1), [ccomps(1)](/man/os/graphviz/ccomps.1), [tred(1)](/man/os/graphviz/tred.1), [libgraph(3)](/man/os/graphviz/libgraph.3)

21 January 2001

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Document: unflatten(1) from graphviz 15.1.1-r1 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://gitlab.com/graphviz/graphviz