FreeBSD: /usr/src/bin/ls/print.c
tabwidth = 8;
As far as I can see, this value can't be changed, and is fixed.
GNU coreutils src/ls.c
tabsize = 8;
The tabsize can be set using the TABSIZE
environment variable, or the -T
/ --tabsize
option.
A tabsize of 8 is pretty standard with UNIX commandline utilities, but as far as I can find, this isn't standardized in POSIX.