EXPAND(1)               System General Commands Manual               EXPAND(1)

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

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

DESCRIPTION
     expand processes the named files or the standard input, writing the stan-
     dard output with tabs changed into blanks.  Backspace characters are pre-
     served into the output and decrement the column count for tab calcula-
     tions.  expand is useful for pre-processing character files (before sort-
     ing, 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 hav-
     ing to process a  at a position beyond the last of those specified
     in a multiple tabstop list, the  is replaced by a single 
     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
     fold(1)

STANDARDS
     The expand and unexpand utilities are compliant with the POSIX 1003.1
     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 comma-
               separated tabstops.

           o   unexpand does not recognise the -t flag.

HISTORY
     The expand command appeared in 3.0BSD.

Interix                          June 9, 2006                          Interix