paste(1)    UNIX System V(Directory and File Management Utilities)     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 ...

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).
      If more than one file is specified with the -s option, paste(1)
      concatenates the merged files one below the other.  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 - is used in place of
      a file name.

      The meanings of the options are:

      -d    Without this option, the new-line characters of each but the last
            file (or last line in case of the -s option) are replaced by a tab
            character.  This 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
            sequentially and circularly: first, the first element on the list
            is used to concatenate the lines, then the next, and so on; when
            all elements have been used, the list is reused starting from the
            first element.  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 list.  The list may contain the special escape
            sequences:  \n (new-line), \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 \\\\"" ).

      -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 new-line.

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




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paste(1)    UNIX System V(Directory and File Management Utilities)     paste(1)


EXAMPLES
      ls | paste -d" " -
                     Lists directory in one column

      ls | paste - - - -
                     Lists directory in four columns

      paste -d"\t\n" file1 file2
                     Lists file1 in column 1 and file2 in column 2.  The
                     columns are separated by a tab.

      paste -s -d"\t\n" file1 file2
                     Merges pairs of subsequent lines first in file1, then in
                     file2. Concatenates the merged file2 below file1.

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

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

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





























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