tabs(1) 							   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 previous settings. The
       user's terminal must have remotely settable 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 defined in 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 terminals. 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 are described 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 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 of tabs. 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  for-
	      mat specification is (see fspec(4)):

		<:t-c3 m6 s66 d:>

       -f     1,7,11,15,19,23

	      FORTRAN

       -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 impor-
	      tance is the value 8: this represents the UNIX system ``standard'' tab setting, and is the most likely tab setting to be found at  a
	      terminal. 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 one there, it sets the tab stops according to it, otherwise it sets them as -8. This type of specification 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 or spaces. The tab-stop values must be 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 formats 1,10,20,30, and
			     1,10,+10,+10 are considered 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 set tabs at columns 1, 8, and 36:

	 example% tabs 1,8,36

       The last command is an example of using -file (file specification) 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

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       See  environ(5)	for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of tabs: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MES-
       SAGES, and NLSPATH.

       TERM	Determine the terminal type. If this variable is unset or null, and if the -T option is not  specified,  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 attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWcsu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |CSI			     |Enabled			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Standard			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       expand(1), newform(1), pr(1), stty(1), tput(1), fspec(4), terminfo(4), attributes(5), environ(5), term(5), standards(5)

NOTES

       There is no consistency among different terminals regarding ways 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.

       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.

SunOS 5.11							    1 Feb 1995								   tabs(1)