ENTAB(1)ENTAB(1)NAMEentab - tab processor
SYNOPSISentab [-cdq] [-s min_spaces] [-t tab_width] [file ... ]
detab [-cq] [-s min_spaces] [-t tab_width] [file ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Entab is a program designed to selectively add or remove
tabs from a file based on user-supplied criteria. In
default mode, entab prints the specified files to standard
output with the optimal mix of tabs and spaces. Tabs
default to every 8 characters, and tabs are used only when
they can replace more than one space, unlike 'col' which
uses tabs wherever possible.
The options are:
-c Clip trailing tabs and spaces from each line.
-d Delete all tabs from output
-q Protect single and double-quoted strings from tab replacement.
(This option is useful when operating on source code.
Line continuation with back-slashes is also understood.)
-s Minimum spaces needed to replace with a tab (default = 2).
-t Number of spaces in a tab stop (default = 8).
Detab is equivalent to entab-d.
NOTES
Entab has improved tab handling for certain situations.
It only replaces tabs if there is a user-defined number of
spaces to be saved. Other tab replacement programs put
tabs wherever possible, so if two words are separated by
one space, and that space is on a tab stop, a tab is
inserted. Then, when words are added to the left, the
words are shifted over, leaving a large gap. The quote-
protection option allows tab replacement without quoted
strings being changed. Useful when strings in source code
will not have the same tab stops when executed in the pro-
gram.
To change a text file created on a system with one size of
tab stop to display properly on a device with different
tab setting, use detab (or entab -d) to remove tabs from
the file with the tab size set to the original tab size,
then use entab to re-tab the file with the new tab size.
AUTHOR
Bruce Momjian, root@candle.pha.pa.us
local ENTAB(1)
