expand
EXPAND(1) General Commands Manual EXPAND(1)
NAME
expand, unexpand – expand tabs to spaces, and vice versa
SYNOPSIS
expand [-t tab1,tab2,...,tabn] [file ...]
unexpand [-a | -t tab1,tab2,...,tabn] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
The expand utility 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. The expand utility is useful for pre-processing character
files (before sorting, looking at specific columns, etc.) that contain
tabs.
The unexpand utility puts tabs back into the data from the standard input
or the named files and writes the result on the standard output.
The following options are available:
-a (unexpand only.) 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.
-t -Sm tab1, tab2, ..., tabn Sm
Set tab stops at column positions tab1, tab2, ..., tabn. If only a
single number is given, tab stops are set that number of column
positions apart instead of the default number of 8.
ENVIRONMENT
The LANG, LC_ALL and LC_CTYPE environment variables affect the execution of
expand and unexpand as described in environ(7).
EXIT STATUS
The expand and unexpand utilities exit 0 on success, and >0 if an error
occurs.
STANDARDS
The expand and unexpand utilities conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
(“POSIX.1”).
HISTORY
The expand utility first appeared in 1BSD.
macOS 12.1 June 6, 2015 macOS 12.1