Manual pages › General commands (1)
tabs(1)
set tabs on a terminal
From the original Amiga UNIX 2.1 manual. Some things it mentions may not be in this release.
NAME
tabs - set tabs on a terminal
SYNOPSIS
tabs [tabspec] [-Ttype] [+mn]
DESCRIPTION
tabs sets the tab stops on the user's terminal according to the tab specification tabspec, after clearing any previous settings. The user's terminal must have remotely settable hardware tabs.
tabspec Four types of tab specification are accepted for
tabspec. They are described below: canned (-code),
repetitive (-n), arbitrary (n1,n2,...), and file
(--file). If no tabspec is given, the default value
is -8, i.e., UNIX system ``standard'' tabs. The
lowest column number is 1. Note that for tabs,
column 1 always refers to the leftmost column on a
terminal, even one whose column markers begin at 0,
e.g., the DASI 300, DASI 300s, and DASI 450.
-code Use one of the codes listed below to select a canned
set of tabs. 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 recom-
mended format for COBOL. The appropriate
format 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
-n A repetitive specification requests tabs at columns 1+n, 1+2*n, etc. 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 a terminal. Another special case is the value 0, implying no tabs at all.
n1,n2,...
The arbitrary format permits the user to type any chosen set of numbers, separated by commas, 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.
--file If the name of a file is given, tabs reads the first
line of the file, searching for a format specifica-
tion [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:
tabs -- file; pr file
Any of the following also may be used; if a given flag occurs more than once, the last value given takes effect:
-Ttype tabs usually needs to know the type of terminal in order to set tabs and always needs to know the type to set 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 TERM is not defined in the environment [see environ(5)], tabs tries a sequence that will work for many terminals.
+mn 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 and margin setting is performed via the standard output.
EXAMPLES
tabs -a example using -code (canned specification) to set tabs to the settings required by the IBM assembler: columns 1, 10, 16, 36, 72.
tabs -8 example of using -n (repetitive specifica-
tion), where n is 8, causes tabs to be set
every eighth position:
1+(1*8), 1+(2*8), ... which evaluate to
columns 9, 17, ...
tabs 1,8,36 example of using n1,n2,... (arbitrary specification) to set tabs at columns 1, 8, and 36.
tabs --$HOME/fspec.list/att4425
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)].
DIAGNOSTICS
illegal tabs when arbitrary tabs are ordered
incorrectly
illegal increment when a zero or missing increment is
found in an arbitrary specification
unknown tab code when a canned code cannot be found
can't open if --file option used, and file can't be
opened
file indirection if --file option used and the specifica-
tion in that file points to yet another
file. Indirection of this form is not
permitted
SEE ALSO
newform(1), pr(1), tput(1). fspec(4), terminfo(4), environ(5), term(5) in the System Administrator's Reference Manual.
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.