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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 separated by a comma or a blank, for exam-
       ple,
              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 implementations.
       Documentation for other implementations states that there is a limit on
       the  number of tab stops.  While some terminals may not accept an arbi-
       trary number of tab stops, this implementation 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).

                                                                       tabs(1)