EXPAND(1) General Commands Manual EXPAND(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

expand - Convert tabs in each FILE to spaces, writing to standard output. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**expand** \[OPTION]... \[FILE]...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Convert tabs in each FILE to spaces, writing to standard output. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**-i**, **--initial**](#i)

do not convert tabs after non blanks

[**-t**, **--tabs** *<N, LIST>*](#t)

have tabs N characters apart, not 8 or use comma separated list of explicit tab positions

[**-U**, **--no-utf8**](#U)

interpret input file as 8-bit ASCII rather than UTF-8

[**-h**, **--help**](#h)

Print help

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Print version

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-10-12

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Document: expand(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r3 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils