PASTE(1)                                                 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 - 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 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 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).



     Page 1                                        (last mod. 8/20/87)

     PASTE(1)                                                 PASTE(1)



     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

     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 option, no more than 12 input
                      files may be specified.

     ORIGIN
          AT&T V.3
































     Page 2                                        (last mod. 8/20/87)