tabs
PURPOSE
Sets tab stops on work stations.
SYNOPSIS
tabs [ tabspec ] [ +mn ] [ -Ttype ]
DESCRIPTION
The tabs command clears up to 20 previous tabs and sets
up to 40 tabs on the work station according to the sup-
plied tabspec. tabspec can be either a flag indicating
an available code or column numbers. The available codes
cover formats required by most structured programming
languages.
When you use the tabs command, always see the leftmost
column number as 1, even if your work station refers to
it as zero (0).
If you do not specify a tabspec, the default value is -8.
TABSPECS
-a Sets the tabs to 1, 10, 16, 36, and 72 (IBM S/370
Assembler first format)
-a2 Sets the tabs to 1, 10, 16, 40, and 72 (IBM S/370
Assembler second format)
-c Sets the tabs to 1, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 55 (COBOL
normal format)
-c2 Sets the tabs to 1, 6, 10, 14, and 49 (COBOL compact
format, columns 1-6 omitted). With this code, the
first column position corresponds to card column 7.
One space gets you to column 8, and a tab reaches
column 12. Files using this code should include a
format specification of:
<:t-c2 m6 s66 d:>
For an explanation of format specifications, see the
fspec file in AIX Operating System Technical
Reference.
-c3 Sets the tabs to 1, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34,
38, 42, 46, 50, 54, 58, 62, and 67 (COBOL compact
format with more tabs than -c2. This is the recom-
mended format for COBOL. Files using this code should
include a format specification of:
<:t-c3 m6 s66 d:>
-f Sets the tabs to 1, 7, 11, 15, 19, and 23 (FORTRAN).
-p Sets the tabs to 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37,
41, 45, 49, 53, 57, and 61 (PL/I).
-s Sets the tabs to 1, 10, and 55 (SNOBOL).
-u Sets the tabs to 1, 12, 20, and 44.
In addition to the preset formats, three other types of
tabspecs are available:
-num Sets regularly repeating tabs at every
numth column. (-8 is the standard AIX
tab setting and the one required for
use with the nroff -h flag.) Another
special case is -0, which implies no
tabs at all.
num[,num] . . . Sets tabs at the named column numbers
(a comma-separated list in ascending
order). You may specify up to 40
numbers. If any number except the
first has a plus sign prefix, the pre-
fixed number is added to the previous
number for the next setting. Thus, the
tab lists "1,10,20,30" and
"1,10,+10,+10" provide the same tab
settings.
--filep Reads the first line of the named filep
for a format specification. If it
finds one, it sets tabs the same way.
If it does not find a format specifica-
tion, it sets tabs to the system
default (-8). Use this tabspec to make
sure that a file has the same tab set-
tings as those in a file already cor-
rectly formatted.
FLAGS
Note: If the same flag occurs more than once, only the
last one takes effect.
-Tworkstation Identifies the work station so that tabs
can set tabs and margins correctly. work-
station is one of the work stations listed
under the greek command. If you do not
provide a -T flag, tabs uses the shell
variable $TERM. If no workstation can be
found, tabs tries a general value that
works for most work stations.
+mnum
+mnum Moves all tabs to the right num columns,
and makes column num1 the left margin. If
m is given without a value, 10 is assumed.
The leftmost margin on most work stations
is defined by m0.
RELATED INFORMATION
The following commands: "greek," "nroff, troff," and
"troff."
The discussion of term and environ in AIX Operating
System Technical Reference.