tabs(1)                              General Commands Manual                              tabs(1)



NAME
       tabs - set tabs on a terminal

SYNOPSIS
       tabs [-v[n]] [-ahuUV] file...

DESCRIPTION
       The  tabs  program  clears  and  sets  tab-stops  on the terminal.  This uses the terminfo
       clear_all_tabs and set_tab capabilities.  If either is absent, tabs is unable to clear/set
       tab-stops.  The terminal should be configured to use hard tabs, e.g.,

              stty tab0

OPTIONS
   General Options
       -Tname
            Tell tabs which terminal type to use.  If this option is not given, tabs will use the
            $TERM environment variable.  If that is not set, it will use the ansi+tabs entry.

       -d   The debugging option shows a ruler line, followed by two data lines.  The first  data
            line  shows the expected tab-stops marked with asterisks.  The second data line shows
            the actual tab-stops, marked with asterisks.

       -n   This option tells tabs to check the options and run any debugging option, but not  to
            modify the terminal settings.

       The  tabs  program  processes a single list of tab stops.  The last option to be processed
       which defines a list is the one that determines the list to be processed.

   Implicit Lists
       Use a single number as an option, e.g., "-5" to set tabs at the given  interval  (in  this
       case 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, etc.).  Tabs are repeated up to the right margin of the screen.

       Use "-0" to clear all tabs.

       Use "-8" to set tabs to the standard interval.

   Explicit Lists
       An  explicit  list can be defined after the options (this does not use a "").  The values
       in the list must be in increasing numeric order, and greater than zero.   They  are  sepa-
       rated by a comma or a blank, for example,

              tabs 1,6,11,16,21
              tabs 1 6 11 16 21
       Use a '+' to treat a number as an increment relative to the previous value, e.g.,

              tabs 1,+5,+5,+5,+5
       which is equivalent to the 1,6,11,16,21 example.

   Predefined Tab-Stops
       X/Open defines several predefined lists of tab stops.

       -a   Assembler, IBM S/370, first format

       -a2  Assembler, IBM S/370, second format

       -c   COBOL, normal format

       -c2  COBOL compact format

       -c3  COBOL compact format extended

       -f   FORTRAN

       -p   PL/I

       -s   SNOBOL

       -u   UNIVAC 1100 Assembler

PORTABILITY
       X/Open describes a +m option, to set a terminal's left-margin.  Very few of the entries in
       the terminal database provide this capability.

       The -d (debug) and -n (no-op) options are extensions not  provided  by  other  implementa-
       tions.

       Documentation  for other implementations states that there is a limit on the number of tab
       stops.  While some terminals may not accept an arbitrary number of tab stops, this  imple-
       mentation will attempt to set tab stops up to the right margin of the screen, if the given
       list happens to be that long.

SEE ALSO
       tset(1), infocmp(1M), curses(3X), terminfo(5).

       This describes ncurses version 5.9 (patch 20130511).



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