expand is a program that converts tab

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

s into groups of

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually cons ...

characters, while maintaining correct alignment. It is available in

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

s and many

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

operating systems. The command is available as a separate package for Microsoft Windows as part of the

UnxUtils UnxUtils is a collection of ports of common GNU Unix-like utilities to native Win32, with executables only depending on the Microsoft C- runtime msvcrt.dll. The collection was last updated externally on April 15, 2003, by Karl M. Syring. The mo ...

collection of

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

Win32 The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. The name Windows API collectively refers to several different platform implementations th ...

ports A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

of common

GNU GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

Unix-like utilities.

Example

For example: $ echo -e "foo\tbar" , expand , xxd -g 1 -u 0000000: 66 6F 6F 20 20 20 20 20 62 61 72 0A foo bar. $ echo -e "foo\tbar" , xxd -g 1 -u 0000000: 66 6F 6F 09 62 61 72 0A foo.bar. $ Here the

echo 
 
In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a  reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

command prints a string of text that includes a tab character, then the output is directed into the expand command. The resulting output is then displayed in hexadecimal and as characters by the xxd dump command. At the second prompt, the same echo output is sent directly to the xxd command. As can be seen by comparing the two, the expand program converts the tab (specified as '\t' to the echo program) into spaces.

References

External links

* {{Core Utilities commands Standard Unix programs Unix SUS2008 utilities

Example

See also

References

External links