xtabs copies infile to outfile, replacing every tab by enough spaces to reach the next tab position. Any other text is copied without change.
outfile will look the same as infile, provided the tab size used by xtabs is the same as that 'assumed' in infile.
The default tab size is 3, giving tab positions 4, 7, 10 ...
xtabs writes a one-line report to standard error (or logfile, if used) when done, e.g.:
xtabs: 42 tabs expanded
If you don't specify infile, xtabs reads from standard input.
If you don't specify outfile, xtabs writes to standard output.
If you don't specify logfile, xtabs writes error messages to
standard error.
-nX : Use tab size X (2..128) instead of default 3.
-v : Print version banner and usage info to standard error (or logfile, if given), then exit.