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- EXPAND(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual EXPAND(1)
-
- NAME
- expand, unexpand - expand tabs to spaces, and vice versa
-
- SYNOPSIS
- expand [ -tabstop ] [ -tab1,tab2,...,tabn ] [ file ... ]
- unexpand [ -a ] [ file ... ]
-
- DESCRIPTION
- Expand processes the named files or the standard input writ-
- ing 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, then 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.
-
- Unexpand puts tabs back into the data from the standard
- input or the named files and writes the result on the stan-
- dard output. By default, only leading blanks and tabs are
- reconverted to maximal strings of tabs. If the -a option is
- given, then tabs are inserted whenever they would compress
- the resultant file by replacing two or more characters.
-