EXPAND(1)

📦 version 1.053, in alpine 3.24

💖 expand(1) — the tab-to-spaces glow-up 💖

ok so bestie, gather round, because this is expand, a lil Perl-powered icon from the Perl Power Tools universe, and honestly? she's serving utility. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

expand — converts tabs to spaces. that's it. that's the whole gig. and she ate. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

expand [-tabstop] [-tab1,tab2,...] [file ...]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the tea ☕ — expand takes the files you name (or the standard input if you don't name any, she's flexible like that 🫶) and writes to the standard output with all the tabs changed into blanks. tabs → spaces. glow-up complete. ✨

and listen, she's respectful: backspace characters are preserved into the output, and they also decrement the column count for tab calculations. so the math stays honest, no cap. 💯

why would you even need this? because expand is genuinely useful for pre-processing character files — like before sorting, or before looking at specific columns, or literally any time your file has tabs in it and you need to know where things actually line up. it's giving "fix it before the real work starts" energy. 🔥

⭐ OPTIONS ⭐

  • -tabstop — sets tabs tabstop spaces apart instead of the default 8. so like, -4 means tabs every 4 spaces. your call, main character. 👑
  • -tab1,tab2,... — sets tabs at the specific column numbers tab1, tab2, and so on. fully custom tab stops, one little comma-separated list of them, iykyk. 🎀

👑 AUTHOR 👑

the Perl implementation was written by Thierry Bezecourt, thbzcrt@worldnet.fr. 💌 part of the Perl Power Tools project, March 1999. iconic behavior, honestly, we stan a 90s Perl revival moment. 🧚

and the docs themselves? this documentation comes from the BSD expand(1) man page. credit where credit is due, bestie. 🌈

this program is free and open software. 🕊️ you may use, modify, distribute, and sell this program (and any modified variants) in any way you wish — the one condition being you do not restrict others from doing the same. that's it. that's the whole vibe. share the love, don't be weird about it. 💖

ngl the license is basically "be cool to each other" in legal form and I respect it so much 😭🫶

and that's the page!! this beauty ships with perl v5.42.2, dated 2026-02-15 — so go forth, expand those tabs, and slay. 💅✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from