expand - Man Page

• Convert tabs in each file to spaces, writing to stdout: expand path/to/file
• Convert tabs to spaces, reading from stdin: expand
• Do not convert tabs after non blanks: expand [-i|--initial] path/to/file
• Have tabs a certain number of characters apart, not 8: expand [-t|--tabs] number path/to/file
• Use a comma separated list of explicit tab positions: expand [-t|--tabs] 1,4,6

tldr.sh

expand [OPTION]... [FILE]...

Convert tabs in each FILE to spaces, writing to standard output.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-i,  --initial

do not convert tabs after non blanks

-t,  --tabs=N

have tabs N characters apart, not 8

-t, --tabs=LIST

use comma separated list of tab positions. The last specified position can be prefixed with '/' to specify a tab size to use after the last explicitly specified tab stop.  Also a prefix of '+' can be used to align remaining tab stops relative to the last specified tab stop instead of the first column

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

Written by David MacKenzie.

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

unexpand(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/expand>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) expand invocation'

col(1), colrm(1), perlmodlib(1), unexpand(1).