I would just approach this like text. Something like: find -type f -name '*.py' -exec sed -i 's/^\t/ /' {} \+ , until you don't see a diff Seems simpl

I would just approach this like text. Something like: find -type f -name '*.py' -exec sed -i 's/^\t/ /' {} \+ , until you don't see a diff Seems simpler to adjust that general approach to whatever codebase and replacement.