PASTE(1)                             SysV                             PASTE(1)



NAME
     paste - merge same lines of several files or subsequent lines of one file

SYNOPSIS
     paste file1 file2 ...
     paste -dlist file1 file2 ...
     paste -s [-dlist] file1 file2 ...

DESCRIPTION
     In the first two forms, paste concatenates corresponding lines of the
     given input files file1, file2, etc.  It treats each file as a column or
     columns of a table and pastes them together horizontally (parallel
     merging).  If you will, it is the counterpart of cat(1) which
     concatenates vertically, i.e., one file after the other.  In the last
     form above, paste replaces the function of an older command with the same
     name by combining subsequent lines of the input file (serial merging).
     In all cases, lines are glued together with the tab character, or with
     characters from an optionally specified list.  Output is to the standard
     output, so it can be used as the start of a pipe, or as a filter, if a
     simple dash (-) is used in place of a filename.

OPTIONS
     -dlist
          Replace the default tab character by one or more alternate
          characters, specified in list. (see below).  The list is used
          circularly, i.e., when exhausted, it is reused.  In parallel merging
          (i.e., no -s option), the lines from the last file are always
          terminated with a new-line character, not from the _ist.  The list
          may contain the special escape sequences:  \n (newline), \t (tab),
          \\ (backslash), and \0 (empty string, not a null character).
          Quoting may be necessary, if characters have special meaning to the
          shell (e.g., to get one backslash, use -d"\\\\"

          If list is not specified, the newline characters of each but the
          last file (or last line in case of the -s option) are replaced with
          a tab character.

          NOTE: There can be no space between -d and list.

     -s   Merge subsequent lines rather than one from each input file.  Use
          tab for concatenation, unless a list is specified with -d option.
          Regardless of the list, the very last character of the file is
          forced to be a newline.

     -    May be used in place of any filename, to read a line from the
          standard input.  (There is no prompting).

EXAMPLES
     To list a directory in one column:
               ls | paste -d"  -

     To list a directory in four columns:
               ls | paste - - -

     To combine pairs of lines into lines:
               paste -s -d"\t\n" file

DIAGNOSTICS
     line too long
               Output lines are restricted to 511 characters.

     too many files
               Except in the case of the -s option, no more than 12 input
               files may be specified.

SEE ALSO
     cut(1), grep(1), pr(1).