Reference: tabs
Author: Daniel Gilly & the Staff of O'Reilly & Associates
Date: 1998-08-06T21:55:22Z

#

| Chapter 2 UNIX Commands |

## tabs

    tabs [tabspec] [options]

Set terminal tab stops according to `tabspec`. The default `tabspec`, -8, gives the standard UNIX tab settings. Specify `tabspec` as a predefined set of tab stops for particular languages, for example: a (IBM assembler), c (COBOL), f (FORTRAN), p (PL/1), s (SNOBOL), and u (UNIVAC). `tabspec` can also be a repeated number, arbitrary numbers, or called from a file.

### Tabspec

-`n`

  Repeat tab every `n` columns (e.g., 1+`n`, 1+2*`n`, etc.).

`n1`,`n2`,...

  Arbitrary ascending values. If `n` is preceded by +, it is added (i.e., tab is relative to previous position).

-a

  1, 10, 16, 36, 72.

-a2

  1, 10, 16, 40, 72.

-c

  1, 8, 12, 16, 20, 55.

-c2

  1, 6, 10, 14, 49.

-c3

  1, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34, 38, 42, 46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 67.

-f

  1, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23.

-p

  1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61.

-s

  1, 10, 55.

-u

  1, 12, 20, 44.

--`file`

  Read first line of `file` for tabs.

### Options

+m`n`

  Set left margin to `n` (default is 10).

-T`type`

  Set terminal `type` (default is TERM).

Reference: sum |  | Reference: tail