EXPAND(1)

📦
version 0.12.0 · 7 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💅 EXPAND(1) — the girlies' guide to un-tabbing ur life

okay so bestie, welcome to expand, from the General Commands Manual section 1. it's giving "my tabs are a mess and i need them to be spaces" and honestly? same. let's get into it.

✨ NAME ✨

expand — convert tabs in each FILE to spaces, writing to standard output. with no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input. 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

expand [OPTION]... [FILE]...

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Convert tabs in each FILE to spaces, writing to standard output. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

like. that's the whole vibe. tabs in ➡️ spaces out. it writes to standard output, it doesn't touch ur files, so don't panic, ur original is safe hun 💖

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -i, --initial — do NOT convert tabs after non blanks. so tabs that show up after something that isn't a blank just stay exactly as they are. lowkey the "hands off my indentation" flag 🙈
  • -t, --tabs <N, LIST> — have tabs N characters apart, not 8, or use a comma separated list of explicit tab positions. so u can go "every 8" (the default, no cap) or literally spell out where u want the tab stops to land 📐
  • -U, --no-utf8 — interpret input file as 8-bit ASCII rather than UTF-8. for when ur input is old school like that 💀
  • -h, --help — Print help. ur bestie when ur lost 🫶
  • -V, --version — Print version. the receipts, periodt ✨

🎀 VERSION 🎀

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Convert tabs in each file to spaces, writing to stdout:

expand path/to/file

Convert tabs to spaces, reading from stdin:

expand

Do not convert tabs after non blanks:

expand [-i|--initial] path/to/file

Have tabs a certain number of characters apart, not 8:

expand [-t|--tabs] number path/to/file

Use a comma separated list of explicit tab positions:

expand [-t|--tabs] 1,4,6
The examples are provided by the tldr-pages project <https://tldr.sh> under the CC BY 4.0 License. Please note that, as uutils is a work in progress, some examples might fail.

ngl the tldr girlies <https://tldr.sh> hooked us UP with those examples and they're under the CC BY 4.0 License 💜 and fr fr, uutils is a work in progress, so a couple examples might just... not hit. not their fault, not ur fault, it's growing 🌱

okay that's the whole page babes, go forth and expand 🌸 this was EXPAND(1), dated 2026-09-25, running on v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0 — mwah, slay, bye 💅💖✨

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