xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/expand/expand.1 (revision f7c32ed617858bcd22f8d1b03199099d50125721)
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28.\"	@(#)expand.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd June 6, 2015
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
113utility first appeared in
114.Bx 1 .
115