tabs(1)                     General Commands Manual                    tabs(1)



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

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 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.

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

       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  arbi-
       trary  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 5.9 (patch 20140913).



                                                                       tabs(1)
