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Full Discussion: can v add 'n' of spaces by a single command?
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting can v add 'n' of spaces by a single command? Post 302324878 by askumarece on Friday 12th of June 2009 05:18:38 AM
Old 06-12-2009
can v add 'n' of spaces by a single command?
Hi All,

I just need to check for 'tabs' in my input file and need to replace all tabs into 'n' no. of spaces. Say for example if I give NO_OF_SPACE=5, then it should replace all tabs with 5 spaces

abc.in
#####
asdasdasd
\t\t\tasjkalskdl;asdsdjfksldfjklsdfxcmxm,cv
\t\t\t\t\t\taskjdkasdjkqwexc209384
\tasjask;
skldfklsdf

say my space count : 2 then my output file should come like below

abc.out
######
asdasdasd
asjkalskdl;asdsdjfksldfjklsdfxcmxm,cv
askjdkasdjkqwexc209384
asjask;
skldfklsdf


I know this command will work :
perl -pe 's/[\t]/\ \ \ \ /g' abc.in

But here I hard coded with 4 sapces. How can I modify the above code as generic??


Thanks in advance
saravana
Last edited by askumarece; 06-12-2009 at 06:25 AM..
 

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LEARN ABOUT OPENSOLARIS

fspec

fspec(4)							   File Formats 							  fspec(4)

NAME

       fspec - format specification in text files

DESCRIPTION

       It  is  sometimes  convenient  to maintain text files on the system with non-standard tabs, (tabs that are not set at every eighth column).
       Such files must generally be converted to a standard format, frequently by replacing all tabs with the appropriate number of spaces, before
       they  can  be  processed by system commands. A format specification occurring in the first line of a text file specifies how tabs are to be
       expanded in the remainder of the file.

       A format specification consists of a sequence of parameters separated by blanks and surrounded by the brackets <: and  :>.  Each  parameter
       consists of a keyletter, possibly followed immediately by a value. The following parameters are recognized:

       ttabs	  The t parameter specifies the tab settings for the file. The value of tabs must be one of the following:

		      o      A list of column numbers separated by commas, indicating tabs set at the specified columns.

		      o      A '-' followed immediately by an integer n, indicating tabs at intervals of n columns.

		      o      A '-' followed by the name of a ``canned'' tab specification.
		  Standard  tabs  are  specified  by t-8, or equivalently, t1,9,17,25, etc. The canned tabs that are recognized are defined by the
		  tabs(1) command.

       ssize	  The s parameter specifies a maximum line size. The value of size must be an integer. Size checking is performed after tabs  have
		  been expanded, but before the margin is prepended.

       mmargin	  The m parameter specifies a number of spaces to be prepended to each line. The value of margin must be an integer.

       d	  The  d  parameter takes no value. Its presence indicates that the line containing the format specification is to be deleted from
		  the converted file.

       e	  The e parameter takes no value. Its presence indicates that the current format is to prevail only until another format  specifi-
		  cation is encountered in the file.

       Default	values,  which	are  assumed for parameters not supplied, are t-8 and m0. If the s parameter is not specified, no size checking is
       performed. If the first line of a file does not contain a format specification, the above defaults are assumed for  the	entire	file.  The
       following is an example of a line containing a format specification:

       * <:t5,10,15 s72:> *

       If a format specification can be disguised as a comment, it is not necessary to code the d parameter.

SEE ALSO

       ed(1), newform(1), tabs(1)

SunOS 5.11							    3 Jul 1990								  fspec(4)
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