unexpand - convert spaces to tabs

unexpand writes the contents of each given file to standard output with strings of two or more space and tab characters at the beginning of each line converted to as many tabs as possible followed by as many spaces needed to fill the same number of column positions. By default, tabs are set at every 8th column. Each backspace character copied to standard output causes the column position to be decremented by 1 unless already in the first column.

If no file is given, or if the file is -, unexpand copies from standard input. The start of the file is defined as the current offset.

-a, --all

Convert all strings of two or more spaces or tabs, not just initial ones.

-t, --tabs=tablist

tablist is a comma or space separated list of positive integers that specifies the tab stops. If only one tab stop is specified, then tabs will be set at that many column positions apart. Otherwise, the value in tablist must be in ascending order and the tab stops will be set to these positions. This option implies the -a option. The default value is 8.

0

All files unexpanded successfully.

>0

One or more files failed to open or could not be read.

expand(1), pr(1)

version

unexpand (AT&T Research) 1999-06-07

author

David Korn <dgk@research.att.com>

copyright

Copyright © 1995-2012 AT&T Intellectual Property

license

http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/epl-v10.html