1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)expand.1 6.5 (Berkeley) 07/24/90 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt EXPAND 1 10.Os BSD 4 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm expand , 13.Nm unexpand 14.Nd expand tabs to spaces, and vice versa 15.Sh SYNOPSIS 16.Nm expand 17.Oo 18.Op Fl Ar tabstop 19.Op Fl Ar tab1,tab2,...,tabn 20.Oo 21.Ar 22.Nm unexpand 23.Op Fl a 24.Ar 25.Sh DESCRIPTION 26.Nm Expand 27processes the named files or the standard input writing 28the standard output with tabs changed into blanks. 29Backspace characters are preserved into the output and decrement 30the column count for tab calculations. 31.Nm Expand 32is useful for pre-processing character files 33(before sorting, looking at specific columns, etc.) that 34contain tabs. 35.Pp 36If a single 37.Ar tabstop 38argument is given, then tabs are set 39.Ar tabstop 40spaces apart instead of the default 8. 41If multiple tabstops are given then the tabs are set at those 42specific columns. 43.Pp 44.Nm Unexpand 45puts tabs back into the data from the standard input or the named 46files and writes the result on the standard output. 47.Pp 48Option (with 49.Nm unexpand 50only): 51.Tw Ds 52.Tp Fl a 53By default, only leading blanks and tabs 54are reconverted to maximal strings of tabs. If the 55.Fl a 56option is given, then tabs are inserted whenever they would compress the 57resultant file by replacing two or more characters. 58.Tp 59.Sh HISTORY 60.Nm Expand 61appeared in 3 BSD. 62