1tabs(1) User Commands tabs(1)
2
6 tabs - set tabs on a terminal
7
9 tabs [-n | −−file
10 [[-code] | -a | -a2 | -c | -c2 | -c3 | -f | -p | -s | -u]]
11 q!! [+m [n]] [-T type]
12 tabs [-T type] [+ m [n]] n1 [, n2 ,...]
15
18 The tabs utility sets the tab stops on the user's terminal according to
19 a tab specification, after clearing any previous settings. The user's
20 terminal must have remotely settable hardware tabs.
21
23 The following options are supported. If a given flag occurs more than
24 once, the last value given takes effect:
25 -T type tabs needs to know the type of terminal in order to set
27 tabs and margins. type is a name listed in term(5). If no
28 -T flag is supplied, tabs uses the value of the environment
29 variable TERM. If the value of TERM is NULL or TERM is not
30 defined in the environment (see environ(5)), tabs uses
31 ansi+tabs as the terminal type to provide a sequence that
32 will work for many terminals.
33 +m[n] The margin argument may be used for some terminals. It
36 causes all tabs to be moved over n columns by making column
37 n+1 the left margin. If +m is given without a value of n,
38 the value assumed is 10. For a TermiNet, the first value in
39 the tab list should be 1, or the margin will move even fur‐
40 ther to the right. The normal (leftmost) margin on most
41 terminals is obtained by +m0. The margin for most terminals
42 is reset only when the +m flag is given explicitly.
43 Tab Specification
46 Four types of tab specification are accepted. They are described
47 below: canned, repetitive (-n), arbitrary (n1,n2,...), and file
48 (-file).
49 If no tab specification is given, the default value is −8, that is,
52 UNIX system ``standard'' tabs. The lowest column number is 1. Note:
53 For tabs, column 1 always refers to the leftmost column on a terminal,
54 even one whose column markers begin at 0, for example, the DASI 300,
55 DASI 300s, and DASI 450.
56 Canned -code
58 Use one of the codes listed below to select a canned set of tabs. If
59 more than one code is specified, the last code option will be used.
60 The legal codes and their meanings are as follows:
61 -a 1,10,16,36,72 Assembler, IBM S/370, first format
63 -a2 1,10,16,40,72
66 Assembler, IBM S/370, second format
68 -c 1,8,12,16,20,55
71 COBOL, normal format
73 -c2 1,6,10,14,49
76 COBOL compact format (columns 1-6 omitted). Using this code, the
78 first typed character corresponds to card column 7, one space
79 gets you to column 8, and a tab reaches column 12. Files using
80 this tab setup should include a format specification as follows
81 (see fspec(4)):
82 <:t-c2 m6 s66 d:>
84 -c3 1,6,10,14,18,22,26,30,34,38,42,46,50,54,58,62,67
88 COBOL compact format (columns 1-6 omitted), with more tabs than
90 -c2. This is the recommended format for COBOL. The appropriate
91 format specification is (see fspec(4)):
92 <:t-c3 m6 s66 d:>
94 -f 1,7,11,15,19,23
98 FORTRAN
100 -p 1,5,9,13,17,21,25,29,33,37,41,45,49,53,57,61
103 PL/I
105 -s 1,10,55
108 SNOBOL
110 -u 1,12,20,44
113 UNIVAC 1100 Assembler
115 Repetitive
118 -n A repetitive specification requests tabs at columns 1+n, 1+2*n,
119 etc., where n is a single-digit decimal number. Of particular
120 importance is the value 8: this represents the UNIX system
121 ``standard'' tab setting, and is the most likely tab setting to
122 be found at a terminal. When −0 is used, the tab stops are
123 cleared and no new ones are set.
124 Arbitrary
127 See OPERANDS.
128 File
130 -file If the name of a file is given, tabs reads the first line of
131 the file, searching for a format specification (see fspec(4)).
132 If it finds one there, it sets the tab stops according to it,
133 otherwise it sets them as −8. This type of specification may
134 be used to make sure that a tabbed file is printed with cor‐
135 rect tab settings, and would be used with the pr command:
136 example% tabs - file; pr file
138 Tab and margin setting is performed via the standard output.
144
146 The following operand is supported:
147 n1[,n2,...] The arbitrary format consists of tab-stop values
149 separated by commas or spaces. The tab-stop val‐
150 ues must be positive decimal integers in ascend‐
151 ing order. Up to 40 numbers are allowed. If any
152 number (except the first one) is preceded by a
153 plus sign, it is taken as an increment to be
154 added to the previous value. Thus, the formats
155 1,10,20,30, and 1,10,+10,+10 are considered iden‐
156 tical.
157
160 Example 1 Using the tabs command
161 The following command is an example using -code ( canned specification)
164 to set tabs to the settings required by the IBM assembler: columns 1,
165 10, 16, 36, 72:
166 example% tabs -a
169 The next command is an example of using -n (repetitive specification),
174 where n is 8, causes tabs to be set every eighth position: 1+(1*8),
175 1+(2*8), ... which evaluate to columns 9, 17, ...:
176 example% tabs −8
179 This command uses n1,n2,... (arbitrary specification) to set tabs at
184 columns 1, 8, and 36:
185 example% tabs 1,8,36
188 The last command is an example of using -file (file specification) to
193 indicate that tabs should be set according to the first line of
194 $HOME/fspec.list/att4425 (see fspec(4)).
195 example% tabs -$HOME/fspec.list/att4425
198
202 See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
203 that affect the execution of tabs: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
204 and NLSPATH.
205 TERM Determine the terminal type. If this variable is unset or
207 null, and if the -T option is not specified, terminal type
208 ansi+tabs will be used.
209
212 The following exit values are returned:
213 0 Successful completion.
215 >0 An error occurred.
218
221 See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
222 ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
227 │ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
228 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
229 │Availability │SUNWcsu │
230 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
231 │CSI │Enabled │
232 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
233 │Interface Stability │Standard │
234 └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
235
237 expand(1), newform(1), pr(1), stty(1), tput(1), fspec(4), terminfo(4),
238 attributes(5), environ(5), term(5), standards(5)
239
241 There is no consistency among different terminals regarding ways of
242 clearing tabs and setting the left margin.
243 tabs clears only 20 tabs (on terminals requiring a long sequence), but
246 is willing to set 64.
247 The tabspec used with the tabs command is different from the one used
250 with the newform command. For example, tabs −8 sets every eighth posi‐
251 tion; whereas newform −i−8 indicates that tabs are set every eighth
252 position.
253SunOS 5.11 1 Feb 1995 tabs(1)