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)