User Commands tabs(1)
NAME
tabs - set tabs on a terminal
SYNOPSIS
tabs [-n | --file
[[-code] | -a | -a2 | -c | -c2 | -c3 | -f | -p | -s | -u]]
q!! [+m [n]] [-T type]
tabs [-T type] [+ m [n]] n1 [, n2 ,...]
DESCRIPTION
The tabs utility sets the tab stops on the user's terminal
according to a tab specification, after clearing any previ-
ous settings. The user's terminal must have remotely sett-
able hardware tabs.
OPTIONS The following options are supported. If a given flag occurs more than once, the last value given takes effect:-T type tabs needs to know the type of terminal in order
to set tabs and margins. type is a name listed
in term(5). If no -T flag is supplied, tabs uses
the value of the environment variable TERM. If the value of TERM is NULL or TERM is not definedin the environment (see environ(5)), tabs uses
ansi+tabs as the terminal type to provide a
sequence that will work for many terminals.+m[n] The margin argument may be used for some termi-
nals. It causes all tabs to be moved over n
columns by making column n+1 the left margin. If +m is given without a value of n, the value assumed is 10. For a TermiNet, the first value in the tab list should be 1, or the margin will move even further to the right. The normal (leftmost) margin on most terminals is obtained by +m0. The margin for most terminals is reset only when the +m flag is given explicitly. Tab Specification Four types of tab specification are accepted. They aredescribed below: canned, repetitive (-n), arbitrary
(n1,n2,...), and file (-file).
If no tab specification is given, the default value is -8,
that is, UNIX system ``standard'' tabs. The lowest column
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User Commands tabs(1)
number is 1. Note: For tabs, column 1 always refers to the
leftmost column on a terminal, even one whose column markers begin at 0, for example, the DASI 300, DASI 300s, and DASI 450.Canned -code
Use one of the codes listed below to select a canned set oftabs. If more than one code is specified, the last code
option will be used. The legal codes and their meanings are as follows:-a 1,10,16,36,72 Assembler, IBM S/370, first format
-a2 1,10,16,40,72
Assembler, IBM S/370, second format-c 1,8,12,16,20,55
COBOL, normal format-c2 1,6,10,14,49
COBOL compact format (columns 1-6 omitted). Using
this code, the first typed character corresponds to card column 7, one space gets you to column 8, and a tab reaches column 12. Files using this tab setup should include a format specification as follows (see fspec(4)):<:t-c2 m6 s66 d:>
-c3 1,6,10,14,18,22,26,30,34,38,42,46,50,54,58,62,67
COBOL compact format (columns 1-6 omitted), with more
tabs than -c2. This is the recommended format for
COBOL. The appropriate format specification is (see fspec(4)):<:t-c3 m6 s66 d:>
-f 1,7,11,15,19,23
FORTRANSunOS 5.11 Last change: 1 Feb 1995 2
User Commands tabs(1)
-p 1,5,9,13,17,21,25,29,33,37,41,45,49,53,57,61
PL/I
-s 1,10,55
SNOBOL-u 1,12,20,44
UNIVAC 1100 Assembler Repetitive-n A repetitive specification requests tabs at columns
1+n, 1+2*n, etc., where n is a single-digit decimal
number. Of particular importance is the value 8: this represents the UNIX system ``standard'' tab setting, and is the most likely tab setting to be found at aterminal. When -0 is used, the tab stops are cleared
and no new ones are set. Arbitrary See OPERANDS. File-file If the name of a file is given, tabs reads the
first line of the file, searching for a format specification (see fspec(4)). If it finds onethere, it sets the tab stops according to it, oth-
erwise it sets them as -8. This type of specifica-
tion may be used to make sure that a tabbed file is printed with correct tab settings, and would be used with the pr command:example% tabs - file; pr file
Tab and margin setting is performed via the standard output. OPERANDS The following operand is supported:n1[,n2,...] The arbitrary format consists of tab-
stop values separated by commas orspaces. The tab-stop values must be
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User Commands tabs(1)
positive decimal integers in ascending order. Up to 40 numbers are allowed. If any number (except the first one) is preceded by a plus sign, it is taken as an increment to be added to the previous value. Thus, the formats1,10,20,30, and 1,10,+10,+10 are con-
sidered identical.EXAMPLES
Example 1 Using the tabs command
The following command is an example using -code ( canned
specification) to set tabs to the settings required by the
IBM assembler: columns 1, 10, 16, 36, 72:example% tabs -a
The next command is an example of using -n (repetitive
specification), where n is 8, causes tabs to be set every
eighth position: 1+(1*8), 1+(2*8), ... which evaluate to columns 9, 17, ...:example% tabs -8
This command uses n1,n2,... (arbitrary specification) to settabs at columns 1, 8, and 36:
example% tabs 1,8,36
The last command is an example of using -file (file specifi-
cation) to indicate that tabs should be set according to the
first line of $HOME/fspec.list/att4425 (see fspec(4)).
example% tabs -$HOME/fspec.list/att4425
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User Commands tabs(1)
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environmentvariables that affect the execution of tabs: LANG, LC_ALL,
LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.
TERM Determine the terminal type. If this variable isunset or null, and if the -T option is not speci-
fied, terminal type ansi+tabs will be used.
EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned: 0 Successful completion. >0 An error occurred.ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWcs ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
| CSI | Enabled ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface Stability | Committed ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Standard | See standards(5). ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
expand(1), newform(1), pr(1), stty(1), tput(1), fspec(4),terminfo(4), attributes(5), environ(5), term(5), stan-
dards(5) NOTES There is no consistency among different terminals regardingways of clearing tabs and setting the left margin.
tabs clears only 20 tabs (on terminals requiring a long
sequence), but is willing to set 64.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 1 Feb 1995 5
User Commands tabs(1)
The tabspec used with the tabs command is different from the
one used with the newform command. For example, tabs -8 sets
every eighth position; whereas newform -i-8 indicates that
tabs are set every eighth position.
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