.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE!  It was generated by help2man 1.50.1.
.TH UNEXPAND "1" "April 2026" "GNU coreutils 9.11" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
unexpand \- convert spaces to tabs
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B unexpand
[\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... [\fI\,FILE\/\fR]...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\" Add any additional description here
.PP
Convert blanks in each FILE to tabs, writing to standard output.
.PP
With no FILE, or when FILE is \-, read standard input.
.PP
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#unexpand-a'\fB\-a, \-\-all\fP\X'tty: link'
convert all blanks, instead of just initial blanks
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#unexpand--first-only'\fB\-\-first\-only\fP\X'tty: link'
convert only leading sequences of blanks (overrides \fB\-a\fR)
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#unexpand-t'\fB\-t, \-\-tabs=\,N\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
have tabs N characters apart instead of 8 (enables \fB\-a\fR)
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#unexpand-t'\fB\-t, \-\-tabs=\,LIST\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
use comma separated list of tab positions.
The last specified position can be prefixed with '/'
to specify a tab size to use after the last
explicitly specified tab stop.  Also a prefix of '+'
can be used to align remaining tab stops relative to
the last specified tab stop instead of the first column
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/unexpand#unexpand--help'\fB\-\-help\fP\X'tty: link'
display this help and exit
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/unexpand#unexpand--version'\fB\-\-version\fP\X'tty: link'
output version information and exit
.SH AUTHOR
Written by David MacKenzie.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs to: bug\-coreutils@gnu.org
.br
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
.br
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
.br
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
\fBexpand\fP(1)
.PP
.br
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/unexpand>
.br
or available locally via: info \(aq(coreutils) unexpand invocation\(aq