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| <H1 class="no-header">tabs 1</H1> |
| <PRE> |
| <STRONG><A HREF="tabs.1.html">tabs(1)</A></STRONG> General Commands Manual <STRONG><A HREF="tabs.1.html">tabs(1)</A></STRONG> |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE> |
| <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> - set tabs on a terminal |
| |
| |
| </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE> |
| <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> [<EM>options</EM>]] <EM>[tabstop-list]</EM> |
| |
| |
| </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE> |
| The <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> program clears and sets tab-stops on the terminal. This uses |
| the terminfo <EM>clear</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>all</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>tabs</EM> and <EM>set</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>tab</EM> capabilities. If either is |
| absent, <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> is unable to clear/set tab-stops. The terminal should be |
| configured to use hard tabs, e.g., |
| |
| stty tab0 |
| |
| Like <STRONG><A HREF="clear.1.html">clear(1)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> writes to the standard output. You can redirect |
| the standard output to a file (which prevents <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> from actually chang- |
| ing the tabstops), and later <STRONG>cat</STRONG> the file to the screen, setting tab- |
| stops at that point. |
| |
| These are hardware tabs, which cannot be queried rapidly by applica- |
| tions running in the terminal, if at all. Curses and other full-screen |
| applications may use hardware tabs in optimizing their output to the |
| terminal. If the hardware tabstops differ from the information in the |
| terminal database, the result is unpredictable. Before running curses |
| programs, you should either reset tab-stops to the standard interval |
| |
| tabs -8 |
| |
| or use the <STRONG>reset</STRONG> program, since the normal initialization sequences do |
| not ensure that tab-stops are reset. |
| |
| |
| </PRE><H2><a name="h2-OPTIONS">OPTIONS</a></H2><PRE> |
| |
| </PRE><H3><a name="h3-General-Options">General Options</a></H3><PRE> |
| <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>name</EM> |
| Tell <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> which terminal type to use. If this option is not |
| given, <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> will use the <STRONG>$TERM</STRONG> environment variable. If that is |
| not set, it will use the <EM>ansi+tabs</EM> entry. |
| |
| <STRONG>-d</STRONG> The debugging option shows a ruler line, followed by two data |
| lines. The first data line shows the expected tab-stops marked |
| with asterisks. The second data line shows the actual tab-stops, |
| marked with asterisks. |
| |
| <STRONG>-n</STRONG> This option tells <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> to check the options and run any debugging |
| option, but not to modify the terminal settings. |
| |
| <STRONG>-V</STRONG> reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and |
| exits. |
| |
| The <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> program processes a single list of tab stops. The last option |
| to be processed which defines a list is the one that determines the |
| list to be processed. |
| |
| |
| </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Implicit-Lists">Implicit Lists</a></H3><PRE> |
| Use a single number as an option, e.g., "<STRONG>-5</STRONG>" to set tabs at the given |
| interval (in this case 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, etc.). Tabs are repeated up |
| to the right margin of the screen. |
| |
| Use "<STRONG>-0</STRONG>" to clear all tabs. |
| |
| Use "<STRONG>-8</STRONG>" to set tabs to the standard interval. |
| |
| |
| </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Explicit-Lists">Explicit Lists</a></H3><PRE> |
| An explicit list can be defined after the options (this does not use a |
| "-"). The values in the list must be in increasing numeric order, and |
| greater than zero. They are separated by a comma or a blank, for exam- |
| ple, |
| |
| tabs 1,6,11,16,21 |
| tabs 1 6 11 16 21 |
| |
| Use a "+" to treat a number as an increment relative to the previous |
| value, e.g., |
| |
| tabs 1,+5,+5,+5,+5 |
| |
| which is equivalent to the 1,6,11,16,21 example. |
| |
| |
| </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Predefined-Tab-Stops">Predefined Tab-Stops</a></H3><PRE> |
| X/Open defines several predefined lists of tab stops. |
| |
| <STRONG>-a</STRONG> Assembler, IBM S/370, first format |
| |
| <STRONG>-a2</STRONG> Assembler, IBM S/370, second format |
| |
| <STRONG>-c</STRONG> COBOL, normal format |
| |
| <STRONG>-c2</STRONG> COBOL compact format |
| |
| <STRONG>-c3</STRONG> COBOL compact format extended |
| |
| <STRONG>-f</STRONG> FORTRAN |
| |
| <STRONG>-p</STRONG> PL/I |
| |
| <STRONG>-s</STRONG> SNOBOL |
| |
| <STRONG>-u</STRONG> UNIVAC 1100 Assembler |
| |
| |
| </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE> |
| <EM>IEEE</EM> <EM>Std</EM> <EM>1003.1/The</EM> <EM>Open</EM> <EM>Group</EM> <EM>Base</EM> <EM>Specifications</EM> <EM>Issue</EM> <EM>7</EM> |
| (POSIX.1-2008) describes a <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> utility. However |
| |
| <STRONG>o</STRONG> This standard describes a <STRONG>+m</STRONG> option, to set a terminal's left-mar- |
| gin. Very few of the entries in the terminal database provide the |
| <STRONG>smgl</STRONG> (<STRONG>set_left_margin</STRONG>) or <STRONG>smglp</STRONG> (<STRONG>set_left_margin_parm</STRONG>) capability |
| needed to support the feature. |
| |
| <STRONG>o</STRONG> There is no counterpart in X/Open Curses Issue 7 for this utility, |
| unlike <STRONG>tput(1)</STRONG>. |
| |
| The <STRONG>-d</STRONG> (debug) and <STRONG>-n</STRONG> (no-op) options are extensions not provided by |
| other implementations. |
| |
| A <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> utility appeared in PWB/Unix 1.0 (1977). There was a reduced |
| version of the <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> utility in Unix 7th edition and in 3BSD (1979). |
| The latter supported a single "-n" option (to cause the first tab stop |
| to be set on the left margin). That option is not documented by POSIX. |
| |
| The PWB/Unix <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> utility, which was included in System III (1980), |
| used built-in tables rather than the terminal database, to support a |
| half-dozen terminal types. It also had built-in logic to support the |
| left-margin, as well as a feature for copying the tab settings from a |
| file. |
| |
| Later versions of Unix, e.g., SVr4, added support for the terminal |
| database, but kept the tables, as a fallback. In an earlier develop- |
| ment effort, the tab-stop initialization provided by <STRONG>tset</STRONG> (1982) and |
| incorporated into <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses the terminal database, |
| |
| POSIX documents no limits on the number of tab stops. Documentation |
| for other implementations states that there is a limit on the number of |
| tab stops (e.g., 20 in PWB/Unix's <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> utility). While some terminals |
| may not accept an arbitrary number of tab stops, this implementation |
| will attempt to set tab stops up to the right margin of the screen, if |
| the given list happens to be that long. |
| |
| The <EM>Rationale</EM> section of the POSIX documentation goes into some detail |
| about the ways the committee considered redesigning the <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> and <STRONG>tput</STRONG> |
| utilities, without proposing an improved solution. It comments that |
| |
| no known historical version of tabs supports the capability of |
| setting arbitrary tab stops. |
| |
| However, the <EM>Explicit</EM> <EM>Lists</EM> described in this manual page were imple- |
| mented in PWB/Unix. Those provide the capability of setting abitrary |
| tab stops. |
| |
| |
| </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE> |
| <STRONG><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>. |
| |
| This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 6.2 (patch 20200212). |
| |
| |
| |
| <STRONG><A HREF="tabs.1.html">tabs(1)</A></STRONG> |
| </PRE> |
| <div class="nav"> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#h2-OPTIONS">OPTIONS</a> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#h3-General-Options">General Options</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#h3-Implicit-Lists">Implicit Lists</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#h3-Explicit-Lists">Explicit Lists</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#h3-Predefined-Tab-Stops">Predefined Tab-Stops</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li> |
| </ul> |
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