'How to set 4 space tab in bash

It look like set tabstop=4 in VIM, but I don't know how to set it in bash

for example:

echo -e "1234567890\t321\n1\t2\n123\t1"

current output:

1234567890      321
1       2
123     1

I want output like this:

1234567890  321
1   2
123 1

It can be shown in anywhere, just like cat somefile or php -r 'echo "\t123";'

How can I set tab width in bash?

bashspace


Solution 1:[1]

You can set either regular or irregular intervals using the tabs utility. It will work whether you're doing your own output, using cat to output a file that already includes tabs or using the output of a program you don't control.

However, if you're controlling your output it's preferable to use printf instead of echo and format strings instead of tabs.

$ printf '%-12s%8.4f %-8s%6.2f\n' 'Some text' 23.456 'abc def' 11.22
Some text    23.4560 abc def  11.22
$ format='%*s%*.*f %*s%*.*f\n'
$ printf "$format" -12 'Some text' 8 4 23.456 -8 'abc def' 6 2 11.22
Some text    23.4560 abc def  11.22

Unless you want someone else to be able to control the output of your program using the tabs utility.

Solution 2:[2]

You can use setterm to set this

setterm -regtabs 4

I put it in my .bash_profile but its not bash related specifically

Solution 3:[3]

tabs 4 results in the following tabstop positions. Which isn't quite what you asked for.

tab stop positions 4,8,12,16,20,24,28,32,36,40,44,48,52,56,60,64,68,72,76,80
         1         2         3         4         5         6         7         8
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

You asked for this..

tab stop positions 5,9,13,17,21,25,29,33,37,41,45,49,53,57,61,65,69,73,77,80
         1         2         3         4         5         6         7         8
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
    *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  *

Specifying tabs with a single number creates an implicit list that starts from 0.
To create an explicit list such as what you asked for. Provide a comma or space separated list of tab stop positions.
Like so: tabs 5,9,13,17,21,25,29,33,37,41,45,49,53,57,61,65,69,73,77

See man tabs and tabs -v for more details.

Solution 4:[4]

This works for me.

~/.bash_profile

# Set the tab stops
if [ -f ~/.bash_tab_stops ]; then
    . ~/.bash_tab_stops
fi

~/.bash_tab_stops

tab_width=4
terminal_width=$( stty size | awk '{print $2}' )

set_tab_stops() {
    local tab_width=$1 terminal_width=$2 tab_stops=''
    for (( i=1+$tab_width; $i<$terminal_width; i+=$tab_width )); do
        tab_stops+=$i','
    done
    tabs $tab_stops
}

set_tab_stops $tab_width $terminal_width

GNU bash, version 4.2.46(2)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu)
PuTTY Release 0.73 Build platform: 64-bit x86 Windows
Linux VPS 3.10.0-1127.18.2.el7.centos.plus.x86_64

Solution 5:[5]

If you want an offset for the first tab (e.g. for git diff) you can use shell expansion to get stepped numbers:

tabs {5..300..4}

In the above, 5 is the first tab's width, the second number is your terminal width, the last is your regular tab width.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 Dennis Williamson
Solution 2 carpii
Solution 3
Solution 4
Solution 5 Walf

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