xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/expand/expand.1 (revision d37eb51047221dc3322b34db1038ff3aa533883f)
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28.Dd June 6, 2015
29.Dt EXPAND 1
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm expand ,
33.Nm unexpand
34.Nd expand tabs to spaces, and vice versa
35.Sh SYNOPSIS
36.Nm
37.Oo
38.Fl t
39.Sm off
40.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn
41.Sm on
42.Oc
43.Op Ar
44.Nm unexpand
45.Oo
46.Fl a | t
47.Sm off
48.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn
49.Sm on
50.Oc
51.Op Ar
52.Sh DESCRIPTION
53The
54.Nm
55utility processes the named files or the standard input writing
56the standard output with tabs changed into blanks.
57Backspace characters are preserved into the output and decrement
58the column count for tab calculations.
59The
60.Nm
61utility is useful for pre-processing character files
62(before sorting, looking at specific columns, etc.) that
63contain tabs.
64.Pp
65The
66.Nm unexpand
67utility puts tabs back into the data from the standard input or the named
68files and writes the result on the standard output.
69.Pp
70The following options are available:
71.Bl -tag -width indent
72.It Fl a
73.Nm ( unexpand
74only.)
75By default, only leading blanks and tabs
76are reconverted to maximal strings of tabs.
77If the
78.Fl a
79option is given, then tabs are inserted whenever they would compress the
80resultant file by replacing two or more characters.
81.It Fl t Xo
82.Sm off
83.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn
84.Sm on
85.Xc
86Set tab stops at column positions
87.Sm off
88.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn .
89.Sm on
90If only a single number is given, tab stops are set that number of
91column positions apart instead of the default number of 8.
92.El
93.Sh ENVIRONMENT
94The
95.Ev LANG , LC_ALL
96and
97.Ev LC_CTYPE
98environment variables affect the execution of
99.Nm
100and
101.Nm unexpand
102as described in
103.Xr environ 7 .
104.Sh EXIT STATUS
105.Ex -std expand unexpand
106.Sh STANDARDS
107The
108.Nm
109and
110.Nm unexpand
111utilities conform to
112.St -p1003.1-2001 .
113.Sh HISTORY
114The
115.Nm
116utility first appeared in
117.Bx 1 .
118