# tabs 1

    tabs(1)                                                         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 termi-
           nal.  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 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

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

           o   There  is  no counterpart in X/Open Curses Issue 7 for
               this utility, unlike tput(3x).

           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  termi-
           nals 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(1m), curses(3x), terminfo(5).

           This describes ncurses version 6.0 (patch 20160611).

                                                                    tabs(1)