NAME

expand - convert tabs to spaces

SYNOPSIS

expand [-tabstop] [-tab1,tab2,...] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

expand 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. expand is useful for pre-processing character files (before sorting, looking at specific columns, etc.) that contain tabs.

OPTIONS

-tabstop

Tabs are set tabstop spaces apart instead of the default 8.

-tab1,tab2,...

Tabs are set at the specific column numbers tab1, tab2 and so on.

AUTHOR

The Perl implementation was written by Thierry Bézecourt for the Perl Power Tools project, March 1999.

This documentation comes from the BSD expand(1) man page.

COPYRIGHT and LICENSE

This program is free and open software. You may use, modify, distribute, and sell this program (and any modified variants) in any way you wish, provided you do not restrict others from doing the same.