.TH EXPAND 1L "GNU Text Utilities" "FSF" \" -*- nroff -*-
.SH NAME
expand \- convert tabs to spaces
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B expand
[\-tab1[,tab2[,...]]] [\-t tab1[,tab2[,...]]] [\-i]
[\-\-tabs=tab1[,tab2[,...]]] [\-\-initial] [\-\-help] [\-\-version] [file...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page
documents the GNU version of
.BR expand .
.B expand
writes the contents of each given file, or the standard input if none
are given or when a file named `\-' is given, to the standard output,
with tab characters converted to the appropriate number of spaces.  By
default,
.B expand
converts all tabs to spaces.  It preserves backspace characters in the
output; they decrement the column count for tab calculations.  The
default action is equivalent to \-8 (set tabs every 8 columns).
.SS OPTIONS
.TP
.I "\-, \-t, \-\-tabs tab1[,tab2[,...]]"
If only one tab stop is given, set the tabs \fItab1\fP spaces apart
instead of the default 8.  Otherwise, set the tabs at columns
\fItab1\fP, \fItab2\fP, etc. (numbered from 0) and replace any tabs
beyond the tabstops given with single spaces.  If the tabstops are
specified with the
.I \-t
or
.I \-\-tabs
option, they can be separated by blanks as well as by commas.
.TP
.I "\-i, \-\-initial"
Only convert initial tabs (those that precede all non space or tab
characters) on each line to spaces.
.TP
.I "\-\-help"
Print a usage message and exit with a non-zero status.
.TP
.I "\-\-version"
Print version information on standard error then exit.