FAQ(39) - Tabs; How to change the tab width ??

QUESTION (39)

Tabs; How to change the tab width ??

ANSWER

$tab-width(5) controls the size of the displayed tab character (number of spaces) and the simulated tab character size, where the user entered tab character is replaced by a number of space characters. The latter is only used when tab(2m) mode is enabled (it is typically enabled by default).

To change the tab character width then the set-variable(2) command is used:

esc x set-variable 

You will then be prompted for the remaining arguments. <TAB> is the completion so:-

esc x set-v<TAB> 
$tab-width<TAB> 
2 

If this is the setting that you always want to use then it is easier if you put this in your <user.emf> as:-

set-variable $tab-width 2 

then whenever you start a new session you will always have the $tab-width defined as you want it.

If you are reading in a file with TAB's embedded then you can convert all of the <TAB>'s to spaces using tabs-to-spaces(3):

esc x tabs-to-spaces 

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Last Modified: 2026/01/17
Generated On: 2026/01/31