# OPEN: CARRIAGECONTROL Specifier

The CARRIAGECONTROL specifier indicates the type of carriage control used when a file is displayed at a terminal. It takes the following form:

CARRIAGECONTROL = cc

cc | Is a scalar default character expression that evaluates to one of the following values:
'FORTRAN' | Indicates normal Fortran interpretation of the first character.
'LIST' | Indicates one line feed between records.
'NONE' | Indicates no carriage control processing.

The default for binary (W*S) and unformatted files is 'NONE'. The default for formatted files is 'LIST'. However, if you specify compiler option vms or fpscomp general, and the unit is connected to a terminal, the default is 'FORTRAN'.

On output, if a file was opened with CARRIAGECONTROL='FORTRAN' in effect or the file was processed by the `fortpr` format utility, the first character of a record transmitted to a line printer or terminal is typically a character that is not printed, but is used to control vertical spacing.

Parent topic: OPEN Statement Specifiers

## See Also

Printing of Formatted Records for details on valid control characters for printing
vms compiler option
fpscomp compiler option