xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/expand/expand.1 (revision ee2ea5ceafed78a5bd9810beb9e3ca927180c226)
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32.\"	@(#)expand.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd April 21, 2002
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.Op Fl Ns Ar tabstop
45.Oo
46.Fl t
47.Sm off
48.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn
49.Sm on
50.Oc
51.Op Ar
52.Nm unexpand
53.Op Fl a
54.Oo
55.Fl t
56.Sm off
57.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn
58.Sm on
59.Oc
60.Op Ar
61.Sh DESCRIPTION
62The
63.Nm
64utility processes the named files or the standard input writing
65the standard output with tabs changed into blanks.
66Backspace characters are preserved into the output and decrement
67the column count for tab calculations.
68The
69.Nm
70utility is useful for pre-processing character files
71(before sorting, looking at specific columns, etc.) that
72contain tabs.
73.Pp
74If a single
75.Ar tabstop
76argument is given, then tabs are set
77.Ar tabstop
78spaces apart instead of the default 8.
79If multiple tabstops are given then the tabs are set at those
80specific columns.
81.Pp
82The
83.Nm unexpand
84utility puts tabs back into the data from the standard input or the named
85files and writes the result on the standard output.
86.Pp
87Option (with
88.Nm unexpand
89only):
90.Bl -tag -width indent
91.It Fl a
92By default, only leading blanks and tabs
93are reconverted to maximal strings of tabs.  If the
94.Fl a
95option is given, then tabs are inserted whenever they would compress the
96resultant file by replacing two or more characters.
97.El
98.Sh STANDARDS
99The
100.Nm expand
101and
102.Nm unexpand
103utilities conform to
104.St -p1003.1-2001 .
105.Sh HISTORY
106The
107.Nm
108command appeared in
109.Bx 3.0 .
110