xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/expand/expand.1 (revision abd87254)
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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 Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn
82Set tab stops at column positions
83.Ar tab1 , tab2 , ... , tabn .
84If only a single number is given, tab stops are set that number of
85column positions apart instead of the default number of 8.
86.El
87.Sh ENVIRONMENT
88The
89.Ev LANG , LC_ALL
90and
91.Ev LC_CTYPE
92environment variables affect the execution of
93.Nm
94and
95.Nm unexpand
96as described in
97.Xr environ 7 .
98.Sh EXIT STATUS
99.Ex -std expand unexpand
100.Sh STANDARDS
101The
102.Nm
103and
104.Nm unexpand
105utilities conform to
106.St -p1003.1-2001 .
107.Sh HISTORY
108The
109.Nm
110utility first appeared in
111.Bx 1 .
112