columns: command not found

Have You tried accessing the binary with the full path?

Maybe Your $PATH variable doesn't contain the default paths? echo $PATH should give something like:

[root@server ~]# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin

If it's empty, You may set the PATH variable with this command

export PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin"

On Debian possible default full paths are:

/usr/bin/columns - from package: autogen

You may install the required package with command apt-get install {package}
Error in other languages:
columns: bevel nie gevind nie
columns: comandă negăsită
columns: comando não encontrado
columns: commande introuvable
columns: command not found
columns: käsku ei ole
columns: không tìm thấy lệnh
columns: komanda nerasta
columns: Kommando nicht gefunden.
columns: kommandot finns inte
columns: komut yok
columns: nie znaleziono polecenia
columns: níor aimsíodh an t-ordú
columns: no se encontró la orden
columns: no s'ha trobat l'ordre
columns: opdracht niet gevonden
columns: parancs nem található
columns: perintah tidak ditemukan
columns: príkaz nenájdený
columns: příkaz nenalezen
columns: команда не найдена
columns: командата не е открита
columns: 命令找不到
columns: コマンドが見つかりません