NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     expand, unexpand - expand tabs to spaces, and vice versa

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     expand [-tabstop] [-tab1,tab2,...,tabn] [file ...]
     expand [-t tabstop] [-t tab1,tab2,...,tabn] [file ...]
     unexpand [-a] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     expand processes the named  files  or  the  standard  input,
writing the standard
  output with tabs changed into blanks.  Backspace characters are preserved
 into the output and decrement the  column  count  for
tab calculations.
   expand is useful for pre-processing character files
(before sorting,
 looking at specific columns, etc.) that contain tabs.

     If a single tabstop argument is given, tabs are set  tabstop
spaces apart
     instead  of  the default 8.  If multiple tabstops are given,
then the tabs
     are set at those specific columns.  In the  synopsis  above,
both forms of
     the expand command are identical.

     If  a list of tabstops is given, it should consist of a list
of two or
     more positive decimal integers, in ascending order.  In  the
event of having
  to  process  a  <tab>  at a position beyond the last of
those specified
     in a multiple tabstop list, the <tab> is replaced by a  single <space>
     character.

     unexpand  puts tabs back into the data from the standard input or the
     named files and writes the result on the standard output.

     The options (for unexpand only) are as follows:

     -a    By default, only leading blanks and  tabs  are  reconverted to maximal
           strings  of tabs.  If the -a option is given, tabs are
inserted
           whenever they would compress the resultant file by replacing two or
           more characters.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     fold(1)

STANDARDS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The  expand  and  unexpand  utilities are compliant with the
IEEE Std 1003.1
     (``POSIX'') specification, with the following exceptions:

           +o   POSIX does not support specifying tabstops without
use of the
               -t flag (first form in SYNOPSIS above).

           +o   POSIX specifies that multiple tabstops may be given separated
               by commas or blanks.  This implementation supports
only commaseparated
 tabstops.

           +o   unexpand does not recognise the -t flag.

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     The expand command appeared in 3.0BSD.

OpenBSD      3.6                           June      9,      1993