UNEXPAND(1)

📦
version 9.10 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ UNEXPAND(1) ✨

okay bestie, gather round, because unexpand is literally the glow-up arc of your whitespace 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

unexpand — convert spaces to tabs (yes, the reverse of that other one, we love a symmetrical queen 👑

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

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

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So here's the vibe: it converts blanks in each FILE to tabs, and writes the result to standard output. That's it. That's the whole job. Iconic, no notes. 🦋

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, it reads standard input. (Yes, - means "stdin, bestie," classic move.)

Heads up, mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. Like, fr fr. Don't skip them and then act surprised. 😭
  • -a, --all — convert all blanks, instead of just initial blanks. all of them. every single one. she's thorough 💅
  • --first-only — convert only leading sequences of blanks. this one overrides -a, so if you had both going on, --first-only wins the argument. no cap.
  • -t, --tabs=N — have tabs N characters apart instead of 8. and psst, this enables -a too. sneakily. 👀
  • -t, --tabs=LIST — use a comma separated list of tab positions. two lil extras here, and they're lowkey the best part:
    • 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. the "help me bestie" button 🫶
  • --version — output version information and exit. for when you gotta know what era we're in ⭐

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by David MacKenzie. king behavior, honestly 🙌

🙈 REPORTING BUGS 🙈

Found a bug? Not me finding bugs, but okay, if you do:

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Packaged by Ubuntu (9.10-1ubuntu2) Copyright © 2026 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.

and that's a wrap, babe 💖 this whole thing is GNU coreutils 9.10, dated August 2026, and it's an UNEXPAND(1) moment. go convert some blanks. slay. 🎀✨

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