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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 calcu-
     lations.	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 re-
	     converted 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 tab1,tab2,...,tabn
	     Set tab stops at column positions tab1,tab2,...,tabn.   If  only  a
	     single number is given, tab stops are set that number of column po-
	     sitions 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 oc-
     curs.

STANDARDS
     The   expand  and	unexpand  utilities  conform  to  IEEE	Std  1003.1-2001
     ("POSIX.1").

HISTORY
     The expand utility first appeared in 1BSD.

FreeBSD ports 15.1		  June 6, 2015			       EXPAND(1)

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<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=expand&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

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