Manuals for the command line

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unexpand - convert spaces to tabs

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

Convert blanks in each FILE to tabs, writing to standard output.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-a, --all
convert all blanks, instead of just initial blanks

--first-only
convert only leading sequences of blanks (overrides -a)

-t, --tabs=N
have tabs N characters apart instead of 8 (enables -a)

-t, --tabs=LIST
use  comma  separated  list of tab positions.  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

--version
output version information and exit

AUTHOR

Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS

GNU coreutils online help: [https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/] Report any translation bugs to [https://translationproject.org/team/]

SEE ALSO

expand(1)

Full documentation [https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/unexpand] or available locally via: info '(coreutils) unexpand invocation'

Packaged by Debian (9.7-3) Copyright © 2025 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.