Joe's own editor - how to change the tab size

I've wasted about 20 mins trying to set tab size too. Here is the solution:

I. Open:

/etc/joe/joerc

II. Find row containing -tab nnn and change it to:

-tab 4

(I assume that you want to change tab size to 4. If you want different value, please replace all the 4s with your value)

III. Find -istep nnn and change it to:

-istep 4

IV. Save & exit

This will set tab size 4 for files WITHOUT extension. If you want to change tab size for files with common extensions like *.java:

I. open /etc/joe/ftyperc

II. Find your extension, for example *.java. Initially it looks like:

 JAVA

*.java

-autoindent

-syntax java

-smarthome

-smartbacks

-purify

-cpara >#!;*/%

III. You have to comment (insert tab before it) -autoindent and add -istep 4 bellow -cpara. It should look like:

 JAVA

*.java

     -autoindent

-syntax java

-smarthome

-smartbacks

-purify

-cpara >#!;*/%

-istep 4

The real solution is:

1. Create a file $HOME/.joerc (NOT .joe as at least the Debian joerc suggests!)
2. FIRST LINE must be :include /etc/joe/joerc
3. Then, a line containing just a * and a newline character
4. Then, -tab 4 and -istep 4, each on a single line.
5. Add a blank line at the end.

You may also add further options with other masks.

In case anyone else runs into this, I am running an ancient version of joe on AIX and after some painful trial and error it turned out that -smartbacks was the problem for me. I commented that line out and tabs work, put it back and they go back to 2. Probably fixed in a later version, but hopefully this helps someone else with the same problem.

 JAVA
*.java
-spaces
-tab 4
-istep 4
-indentc 32
-autoindent
-syntax java
-smarthome
 -smartbacks
-purify