NAME

       tabs - set tabs on a terminal

SYNOPSIS

       tabs [options]] [tabstop-list]

DESCRIPTION

       The  tabs  program  clears  and  sets  tab-stops  on the terminal.  This uses the terminfo
       clear_all_tabs and set_tab capabilities.  If either is absent, tabs is unable to clear/set
       tab-stops.  The terminal should be configured to use hard tabs, e.g.,

           stty tab0

       Like  clear(1),  tabs writes to the standard output.  You can redirect the standard output
       to a file (which prevents tabs from actually changing the tabstops),  and  later  cat  the
       file to the screen, setting tabstops at that point.

OPTIONS

   General Options
       -Tname
            Tell tabs which terminal type to use.  If this option is not given, tabs will use the
            $TERM environment variable.  If that is not set, it will use the ansi+tabs entry.

       -d   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.

       -n   This option tells tabs to check the options and run any debugging option, but not  to
            modify the terminal settings.

       -V   reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and exits.

       The  tabs  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.

   Implicit Lists
       Use a single number as an option, e.g., “-5” 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 “-0” to clear all tabs.

       Use “-8” to set tabs to the standard interval.

   Explicit Lists
       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 example,

           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.

   Predefined Tab-Stops
       X/Open defines several predefined lists of tab stops.

       -a   Assembler, IBM S/370, first format

       -a2  Assembler, IBM S/370, second format

       -c   COBOL, normal format

       -c2  COBOL compact format

       -c3  COBOL compact format extended

       -f   FORTRAN

       -p   PL/I

       -s   SNOBOL

       -u   UNIVAC 1100 Assembler

PORTABILITY

       IEEE  Std  1003.1/The  Open  Group  Base Specifications Issue 7 (POSIX.1-2008) describes a
       tabs utility.  However

       •   This standard describes a +m option, to set a terminal's left-margin.  Very few of the
           entries in the terminal database provide this capability.

       •   There is no counterpart in X/Open Curses Issue 7 for this utility, unlike tput(1).

       The   -d   (debug)   and   -n  (no-op)  options  are  extensions  not  provided  by  other
       implementations.

       Documentation for other implementations states that there is a limit on the number of  tab
       stops.   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.

SEE ALSO

       tset(1), infocmp(1), ncurses(3NCURSES), terminfo(5).

       This describes ncurses version 6.1 (patch 20180127).

                                                                                          tabs(1)