tab spaces in vi and printing don't match

[Stuart Abramson_2]

I like to change my vi tab stops from default 8 to 5 spaces:

vi .exrc
set autowrite wrapmargin=0 report=1 tabstop=5

works fine.

But when I print, the tabstops aren't set to five. They seem to be set to 8, and all my files run off of the right side of the paper.

Is there some way to get the print tabs to match the vi tabs?

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Stuart:

Have a look at the 'pr' filter's '-e' arguement (man 'pr'). Hence:

# pr -F -e5 filename | lp ...

Regards!

...JRF...

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

Though this may work for you, you're bound to get trouble when exchanging files with others. Almost everyone in the unix world is using tabs=8

If the only reason you want it set to 5 is to have less indent in programmatic blocks, I would strongly advice to use sw=5 instead, it is supported by all vi clones, and still leaves the spacing portable regarding the tab stops.

If you are using a `better' vi, check if it has an expand option, so your file will not contain any spaces at all when writing it.

Also check the 'expand' command

Enjoy, have FUN! H.Merijn

[Steve Steel]

Hi

expand should also work


expand processes the named files or the standard input and writes to
the standard output with tabs changed into spaces.


Steve steel