Variable: whitespace-tab-regexp
whitespace-tab-regexp is a customizable variable defined in
whitespace.el.gz.
Value
"\\( +\\)"
Documentation
Regexp to match TAB characters that should be visualized.
The TAB characters are highlighted using the whitespace-tab face.
By default only ASCII TAB character is visualized, but if you
are typing in some non-Latin language, there may be other
characters besides " " that should be considered a TAB.
Here are some examples:
"\\\\(^\\t+\\\\)" visualize only leading TABs.
"\\\\(\\t+$\\\\)" visualize only trailing TABs.
"\\\\(^\\t+\\\\|\\t+$\\\\)" visualize leading and/or trailing TABs.
" \\\\(\\t+\\\\) " visualize only TABs between SPACEs.
NOTE: Always enclose the elements to highlight in \\(...\\).
Use exactly one pair of enclosing \\( and \\).
This variable is used when whitespace-style includes tabs.
Source Code
;; Defined in /usr/src/emacs/lisp/whitespace.el.gz
(defcustom whitespace-tab-regexp "\\(\t+\\)"
"Regexp to match TAB characters that should be visualized.
The TAB characters are highlighted using the `whitespace-tab' face.
By default only ASCII TAB character is visualized, but if you
are typing in some non-Latin language, there may be other
characters besides \" \" that should be considered a TAB.
Here are some examples:
\"\\\\(^\\t+\\\\)\" visualize only leading TABs.
\"\\\\(\\t+$\\\\)\" visualize only trailing TABs.
\"\\\\(^\\t+\\\\|\\t+$\\\\)\" \
visualize leading and/or trailing TABs.
\" \\\\(\\t+\\\\) \" visualize only TABs between SPACEs.
NOTE: Always enclose the elements to highlight in \\\\(...\\\\).
Use exactly one pair of enclosing \\\\( and \\\\).
This variable is used when `whitespace-style' includes `tabs'."
:type '(regexp :tag "TAB Chars"))