xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/expand/expand.1 (revision 01ded8b942effbbb4d9225c4227f264e499e9698)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
13.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
14.\"    without specific prior written permission.
15.\"
16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
26.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
27.\"
28.\"	@(#)expand.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd October 13, 2006
32.Dt EXPAND 1
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm expand ,
36.Nm unexpand
37.Nd expand tabs to spaces, and vice versa
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Nm
40.Oo
41.Fl t
42.Sm off
43.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn
44.Sm on
45.Oc
46.Op Ar
47.Nm unexpand
48.Oo
49.Fl a | t
50.Sm off
51.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn
52.Sm on
53.Oc
54.Op Ar
55.Sh DESCRIPTION
56The
57.Nm
58utility processes the named files or the standard input writing
59the standard output with tabs changed into blanks.
60Backspace characters are preserved into the output and decrement
61the column count for tab calculations.
62The
63.Nm
64utility is useful for pre-processing character files
65(before sorting, looking at specific columns, etc.) that
66contain tabs.
67.Pp
68The
69.Nm unexpand
70utility puts tabs back into the data from the standard input or the named
71files and writes the result on the standard output.
72.Pp
73The following options are available:
74.Bl -tag -width indent
75.It Fl a
76.Nm ( unexpand
77only.)
78By default, only leading blanks and tabs
79are reconverted to maximal strings of tabs.
80If the
81.Fl a
82option is given, then tabs are inserted whenever they would compress the
83resultant file by replacing two or more characters.
84.It Fl t Sm Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn Sm
85Set tab stops at column positions
86.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn .
87If only a single number is given, tab stops are set that number of
88column positions apart instead of the default number of 8.
89.El
90.Sh ENVIRONMENT
91The
92.Ev LANG , LC_ALL
93and
94.Ev LC_CTYPE
95environment variables affect the execution of
96.Nm
97and
98.Nm unexpand
99as described in
100.Xr environ 7 .
101.Sh EXIT STATUS
102.Ex -std expand unexpand
103.Sh STANDARDS
104The
105.Nm
106and
107.Nm unexpand
108utilities conform to
109.St -p1003.1-2001 .
110.Sh HISTORY
111The
112.Nm
113command appeared in
114.Bx 3.0 .
115