unexpand - Man Page

• Convert blanks in each file to tabs, writing to stdout: unexpand path/to/file
• Convert blanks to tabs, reading from stdout: unexpand
• Convert all blanks, instead of just initial blanks: unexpand [-a|--all] path/to/file
• Convert only leading sequences of blanks (overrides -a): unexpand --first-only path/to/file
• Have tabs a certain number of characters apart, not 8 (enables -a): unexpand [-t|--tabs] number path/to/file

tldr.sh

unexpand [OPTION]... [FILE]...

Convert blanks in each FILE to tabs, 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.

-a,  --all

convert all blanks, instead of just initial blanks

--first-only

convert only leading sequences of blanks (overrides -a)

-t,  --tabs=N

have tabs N characters apart instead of 8 (enables -a)

-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/>
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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.

expand(1)

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

expand(1), perlmodlib(1).