1tabs(1)                     General Commands Manual                    tabs(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       tabs - set tabs on a terminal
7

SYNOPSIS

9       tabs [-v[n]] [-ahuUV] file...
10

DESCRIPTION

12       The  tabs program clears and sets tab-stops on the terminal.  This uses
13       the terminfo clear_all_tabs and set_tab  capabilities.   If  either  is
14       absent,  tabs is unable to clear/set tab-stops.  The terminal should be
15       configured to use hard tabs, e.g.,
16
17              stty tab0
18

OPTIONS

20   General Options
21       -Tname
22            Tell tabs which terminal type to  use.   If  this  option  is  not
23            given,  tabs  will use the $TERM environment variable.  If that is
24            not set, it will use the ansi+tabs entry.
25
26       -d   The debugging option shows a ruler  line,  followed  by  two  data
27            lines.   The  first  data line shows the expected tab-stops marked
28            with asterisks.  The second data line shows the actual  tab-stops,
29            marked with asterisks.
30
31       -n   This  option tells tabs to check the options and run any debugging
32            option, but not to modify the terminal settings.
33
34       The tabs program processes a single list of tab stops.  The last option
35       to  be  processed  which  defines a list is the one that determines the
36       list to be processed.
37
38   Implicit Lists
39       Use a single number as an option, e.g., "-5" to set tabs at  the  given
40       interval  (in  this case 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, etc.).  Tabs are repeated up
41       to the right margin of the screen.
42
43       Use "-0" to clear all tabs.
44
45       Use "-8" to set tabs to the standard interval.
46
47   Explicit Lists
48       An explicit list can be defined after the options (this does not use  a
49       "-").   The values in the list must be in increasing numeric order, and
50       greater than zero.  They are separated by a comma or a blank, for exam‐
51       ple,
52
53              tabs 1,6,11,16,21
54              tabs 1 6 11 16 21
55       Use  a  '+'  to treat a number as an increment relative to the previous
56       value, e.g.,
57
58              tabs 1,+5,+5,+5,+5
59       which is equivalent to the 1,6,11,16,21 example.
60
61   Predefined Tab-Stops
62       X/Open defines several predefined lists of tab stops.
63
64       -a   Assembler, IBM S/370, first format
65
66       -a2  Assembler, IBM S/370, second format
67
68       -c   COBOL, normal format
69
70       -c2  COBOL compact format
71
72       -c3  COBOL compact format extended
73
74       -f   FORTRAN
75
76       -p   PL/I
77
78       -s   SNOBOL
79
80       -u   UNIVAC 1100 Assembler
81

PORTABILITY

83       X/Open describes a +m option, to set a  terminal's  left-margin.   Very
84       few of the entries in the terminal database provide this capability.
85
86       The  -d  (debug)  and -n (no-op) options are extensions not provided by
87       other implementations.
88
89       Documentation for other implementations states that there is a limit on
90       the  number of tab stops.  While some terminals may not accept an arbi‐
91       trary number of tab stops, this implementation will attempt to set  tab
92       stops  up  to the right margin of the screen, if the given list happens
93       to be that long.
94

SEE ALSO

96       tset(1), infocmp(1M), curses(3X), terminfo(5).
97
98       This describes ncurses version 5.9 (patch 20130511).
99
100
101
102                                                                       tabs(1)