GNU bug report logs - #25553
How many coreutils rely on tabs to align things (other, than 'du'?

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Message #14 received at 25553 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: L A Walsh <coreutils <at> tlinx.org>
Cc: 25553 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#25553: How many coreutils rely on tabs to align things
 (other, than 'du'?
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2017 02:41:24 -0800

L A Walsh wrote:
> I'm working on some loose ends, but basically,
> First, it would default to providing no change.  ;-)
>
> Through use of a switch it can expand the tabs to spaces
> using a default of every 8th column (after 1) (using a
> switch value of 'ExpandTo').
>
> And with 2 env vars, TTY_TABSIZE & TTY_TABSET
> it can re-entabulate the output to use the user's tabsize as related through the
> env vars.

It sounds like this could be done via 'du | expand', so why change 'du'?

Also, environment variables cause too many problems. If new functionality is 
needed here (which is not yet clear), it should be via new options.

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