expand

Convert tabs to spaces

low risk

interactive breakdown — edit the command and press Explain

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⚠ Risks & cautions

`expand f > f` truncates the file before reading it — write to a new file.

What it does

Replaces tabs with spaces. See the flags and examples below, and run `man expand` for the full reference.

Common flags

Flag	Meaning
`-t`	Tab stop width

Examples

expand -t 4 file.py > out.pyTabs to 4 spaces · explain & risk-check →

Open the full explainer →More in Text Processing

Reference text is hand-written and may be incomplete — check man expand for your version. Test destructive commands on a non-production system first.