expand(1) expand(1)NAME expand, unexpand - expand tabs to spaces, and vice versa SYNOPSIS expand [-tabstop] [-tab1,tab2,...,tabn] [file...] unexpand [-a] [file...] DESCRIPTION expand reads the named files (or the standard input, if none are given) and writes on the the standard output with tabs changed into blanks. Backspace characters are preserved into the output and decrement the column count for tab cal- culations. expand is useful for preprocessing character files that contain tabs (before sorting, looking at specific columns, and so forth). If a single numerical 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 in- put or the named files and writes the result on the standard output. By default, only leading blanks and tabs are recon- verted to maximal strings of tabs. If the -a flag option is given, then tabs are inserted whenever they would compress the resultant file by replacing two or more characters. FILES /usr/ucb/expand /usr/ucb/unexpand April, 1990 1