xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/expand/expand.1 (revision 17ee9d00bc1ae1e598c38f25826f861e4bc6c3ce)
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32.\"	@(#)expand.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
33.\"
34.Dd June 9, 1993
35.Dt EXPAND 1
36.Os BSD 4
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm expand ,
39.Nm unexpand
40.Nd expand tabs to spaces, and vice versa
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm expand
43.Op Fl Ns Ar tabstop
44.Op Fl Ns Ar tab1,tab2,...,tabn
45.Ar
46.Nm unexpand
47.Op Fl a
48.Ar
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50.Nm Expand
51processes the named files or the standard input writing
52the standard output with tabs changed into blanks.
53Backspace characters are preserved into the output and decrement
54the column count for tab calculations.
55.Nm Expand
56is useful for pre-processing character files
57(before sorting, looking at specific columns, etc.) that
58contain tabs.
59.Pp
60If a single
61.Ar tabstop
62argument is given, then tabs are set
63.Ar tabstop
64spaces apart instead of the default 8.
65If multiple tabstops are given then the tabs are set at those
66specific columns.
67.Pp
68.Nm Unexpand
69puts tabs back into the data from the standard input or the named
70files and writes the result on the standard output.
71.Pp
72Option (with
73.Nm unexpand
74only):
75.Bl -tag -width flag
76.It Fl a
77By default, only leading blanks and tabs
78are reconverted to maximal strings of tabs.  If the
79.Fl a
80option is given, then tabs are inserted whenever they would compress the
81resultant file by replacing two or more characters.
82.El
83.Sh HISTORY
84The
85.Nm expand
86command appeared in
87.Bx 3.0 .
88