xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/expand/expand.1 (revision 1669d8afc64812c8d2d1d147ae1fd42ff441e1b1)
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32.\"	@(#)expand.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd October 13, 2006
36.Dt EXPAND 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm expand ,
40.Nm unexpand
41.Nd expand tabs to spaces, and vice versa
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm
44.Oo
45.Fl t
46.Sm off
47.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn
48.Sm on
49.Oc
50.Op Ar
51.Nm unexpand
52.Oo
53.Fl a | t
54.Sm off
55.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn
56.Sm on
57.Oc
58.Op Ar
59.Sh DESCRIPTION
60The
61.Nm
62utility processes the named files or the standard input writing
63the standard output with tabs changed into blanks.
64Backspace characters are preserved into the output and decrement
65the column count for tab calculations.
66The
67.Nm
68utility is useful for pre-processing character files
69(before sorting, looking at specific columns, etc.) that
70contain tabs.
71.Pp
72The
73.Nm unexpand
74utility puts tabs back into the data from the standard input or the named
75files and writes the result on the standard output.
76.Pp
77The following options are available:
78.Bl -tag -width indent
79.It Fl a
80.Nm ( unexpand
81only.)
82By default, only leading blanks and tabs
83are reconverted to maximal strings of tabs.
84If the
85.Fl a
86option is given, then tabs are inserted whenever they would compress the
87resultant file by replacing two or more characters.
88.It Fl t Sm Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn Sm
89Set tab stops at column positions
90.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn .
91If only a single number is given, tab stops are set that number of
92column positions apart instead of the default number of 8.
93.El
94.Sh ENVIRONMENT
95The
96.Ev LANG , LC_ALL
97and
98.Ev LC_CTYPE
99environment variables affect the execution of
100.Nm
101and
102.Nm unexpand
103as described in
104.Xr environ 7 .
105.Sh EXIT STATUS
106.Ex -std expand unexpand
107.Sh STANDARDS
108The
109.Nm
110and
111.Nm unexpand
112utilities conform to
113.St -p1003.1-2001 .
114.Sh HISTORY
115The
116.Nm
117command appeared in
118.Bx 3.0 .
119