= Verbatim Block Line Wrapping

The default Asciidoctor stylesheet wraps long lines in verbatim blocks by applying the CSS `white-space: pre-wrap` and `word-wrap: break-word`.
The lines are wrapped at word boundaries, similar to how most text editors wrap lines.
This prevents horizontal scrolling which some users considered a greater readability problem than line wrapping.

However, this behavior is configurable because there are times when you don't want the lines in listing and literal blocks to wrap.

== Prevent line wrapping

There are two ways to prevent lines from wrapping so that horizontal scrolling is used instead:

* `nowrap` block option
* unset the `prewrap` document attribute (on by default)

You can use the `nowrap` option on literal or listing blocks to prevent lines from being wrapped in the HTML.

.Listing block with nowrap option syntax
[source,asciidoc]
....
include::example$wrap.adoc[tag=nowrap]
....

When the nowrap option is used, the `nowrap` class is added to the `<pre>` element.
This class changes the CSS to `white-space: pre` and `word-wrap: normal`.

.Result: Listing block with nowrap option applied
include::example$wrap.adoc[tag=nowrap]

To prevent lines from wrapping globally, unset the `prewrap` attribute on the document.

.Disable prewrap globally (thus, enabling nowrap)
[,asciidoc]
----
:prewrap!:
----

When the prewrap attribute is unset, the `nowrap` class is added to any `<pre>` elements.

Now, you can use the line wrapping strategy that works best for you and your readers.