#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $file = ""; my $nspace = 4; ($ARGV[0] && ($file = $ARGV[0])) || die "no filename given"; $ARGV[1] && ($nspace = $ARGV[1]); print "converting $file: $nspace spaces -> 1 tab\n"; unless (-r $file) { die "can't open $file: $!"; } open(IN, "< " .$file); open(OUT, ">.tmp_" . $file); foreach () { # s/\r//; s/\s{$nspace}/\t/g; s/[\t ]*([\r\n]*)$/$1/; print OUT; } close IN; close OUT;