paste(1)                                                 paste(1)



     NAME
          paste - merge 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 optional-
          ly specified list.  Output is to the standard output, so it
          can be used as the start of a pipe, or as a filter, if - is
          used in place of a file name.

     FLAG OPTIONS
          The meanings of the flag options are:

          -d   Without this flag option, the newline characters of
               each but the last file (or last line in case of the -s
               flag option) are replaced by a tab character.  This
               flag option allows replacing the tab character by one
               or more alternate characters (see below).

          list One or more characters immediately following -d replace
               the default tab as the line concatenation character.
               The list is used circularly, i.e., when exhausted, it
               is reused.  In parallel merging (i.e., no -s flag op-
               tion), the lines from the last file are always ter-
               minated with a newline character, not from the list.
               The list may contain the special escape sequences:  \n
               (newline) \t (tab), \\ (backslash), and \0 (empty
               string, not a null character).  Quoting may be neces-
               sary, if characters have special meaning to the shell
               (e.g., to get one backslash, use -d \\\\"" ).

          -s   Merge subsequent lines rather than one from each input
               file.  Use tab, for concatenation, unless a list is
               specified with -d flag 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 file name, to read a line



     April, 1990                                                     1

     paste(1)                                                 paste(1)



               from the standard input.  (There is no prompting).

     EXAMPLES
             ls | paste -d"" -

          list directory in one column.

             ls | paste - - - -

          list directory in four columns.

             paste -s -d"\ t\ n" file

          combine pairs of lines into lines.

     FILES
          /usr/bin/paste

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

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

          too many files
               Except for -s flag option, no more than 12 input files
               may be specified.



























     2                                                     April, 1990