NAME

       Text::Tabs - expand and unexpand tabs like unix expand(1) and unexpand(1)

SYNOPSIS

         use Text::Tabs;

         $tabstop = 4;  # default = 8
         @lines_without_tabs = expand(@lines_with_tabs);
         @lines_with_tabs = unexpand(@lines_without_tabs);

DESCRIPTION

       Text::Tabs does most of what the unix utilities expand(1) and unexpand(1) do.  Given a
       line with tabs in it, "expand" replaces those tabs with the appropriate number of spaces.
       Given a line with or without tabs in it, "unexpand" adds tabs when it can save bytes by
       doing so, like the "unexpand -a" command.

       Unlike the old unix utilities, this module correctly accounts for any Unicode combining
       characters (such as diacriticals) that may occur in each line for both expansion and
       unexpansion.  These are overstrike characters that do not increment the logical position.
       Make sure you have the appropriate Unicode settings enabled.

EXPORTS

       The following are exported:

       expand
       unexpand
       $tabstop
           The $tabstop variable controls how many column positions apart each tabstop is.  The
           default is 8.

           Please note that "local($tabstop)" doesn't do the right thing and if you want to use
           "local" to override $tabstop, you need to use "local($Text::Tabs::tabstop)".

EXAMPLE

         #!perl
         # unexpand -a
         use Text::Tabs;

         while (<>) {
           print unexpand $_;
         }

       Instead of the shell's "expand" comand, use:

         perl -MText::Tabs -n -e 'print expand $_'

       Instead of the shell's "unexpand -a" command, use:

         perl -MText::Tabs -n -e 'print unexpand $_'

SUBVERSION

       This module comes in two flavors: one for modern perls (5.10 and above) and one for
       ancient obsolete perls.  The version for modern perls has support for Unicode.  The
       version for old perls does not.  You can tell which version you have installed by looking
       at $Text::Tabs::SUBVERSION: it is "old" for obsolete perls and "modern" for current perls.

       This man page is for the version for modern perls and so that's probably what you've got.

BUGS

       Text::Tabs handles only tabs ("\t") and combining characters ("/\pM/").  It doesn't count
       backwards for backspaces ("\t"), omit other non-printing control characters ("/\pC/"), or
       otherwise deal with any other zero-, half-, and full-width characters.

LICENSE

       Copyright (C) 1996-2002,2005,2006 David Muir Sharnoff.  Copyright (C) 2005 Aristotle
       Pagaltzis Copyright (C) 2012 Google, Inc.  This module may be modified, used, copied, and
       redistributed at your own risk.  Publicly redistributed modified versions must use a
       different name.