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.TH PASTE 1 "Dec 20, 1996"
.SH NAME
paste \- merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
\fBpaste\fR [\fB-s\fR] [\fB-d\fR \fIlist\fR] \fIfile\fR...
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
.LP
The \fBpaste\fR utility will concatenate the corresponding lines of the given
input files, and write the resulting lines to standard output.
.sp
.LP
The default operation of \fBpaste\fR will concatenate the corresponding lines
of the input files. The \fBNEWLINE\fR character of every line except the line
from the last input file will be replaced with a \fBTAB\fR character.
.sp
.LP
If an \fBEOF\fR (end-of-file) condition is detected on one or more input files,
but not all input files, \fBpaste\fR will behave as though empty lines were
read from the files on which \fBEOF\fR was detected, unless the \fB-s\fR option
is specified.
.SH OPTIONS
.sp
.LP
The following options are supported:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-d\fR \fIlist\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 12n
Unless a backslash character (\|\e\|) appears in \fIlist\fR, each character in
\fIlist\fR is an element specifying a delimiter character. If a backslash
character appears in \fIlist\fR, the backslash character and one or more
characters following it are an element specifying a delimiter character as
described below. These elements specify one or more delimiters to use, instead
of the default \fBTAB\fR character, to replace the \fBNEWLINE\fR character of
the input lines. The elements in \fIlist\fR are used circularly. That is, when
the list is exhausted, the first element from the list is reused.
.sp
When the \fB-s\fR option is specified:
.RS +4
.TP
.ie t \(bu
.el o
The last newline character in a file will not be modified.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
.ie t \(bu
.el o
The delimiter will be reset to the first element of list after each \fIfile\fR
operand is processed.
.RE
When the option is not specified:
.RS +4
.TP
.ie t \(bu
.el o
The \fBNEWLINE\fR characters in the file specified by the last \fIfile\fR will
not be modified.
.RE
.RS +4
.TP
.ie t \(bu
.el o
The delimiter will be reset to the first element of \fIlist\fR each time a line
is processed from each file.
.RE
If a backslash character appears in \fIlist\fR, it and the character following
it will be used to represent the following delimiter characters:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB\en\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 9n
Newline character.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB\et\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 9n
Tab character.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB\e\e\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 9n
Backslash character.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB\e0\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 9n
Empty string (not a null character). If \fB\e0\fR is immediately followed by
the character \fBx\fR, the character \fBX\fR, or any character defined by the
\fBLC_CTYPE\fR \fBdigit\fR keyword, the results are unspecified.
.RE

If any other characters follow the backslash, the results are unspecified.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-s\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 12n
Concatenate all of the lines of each separate input file in command line order.
The \fBNEWLINE\fR character of every line except the last line in each input
file will be replaced with the \fBTAB\fR character, unless otherwise specified
by the \fB-d\fR option.
.RE

.SH OPERANDS
.sp
.LP
The following operand is supported:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fIfile\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 9n
A path name of an input file. If \fB\(mi\fR is specified for one or more of the
\fIfile\fRs, the standard input will be used. The standard input will be read
one line at a time, circularly, for each instance of \fB\(mi\fR\&.
Implementations support pasting of at least 12 \fIfile\fR operands.
.RE

.SH USAGE
.sp
.LP
See \fBlargefile\fR(7) for the description of the behavior of \fBpaste\fR when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
.SH EXAMPLES
.LP
\fBExample 1 \fRListing a directory in one column
.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBls | paste -d" " \(mi\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.LP
\fBExample 2 \fRListing a directory in four columns
.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBls | paste \(mi \(mi \(mi \(mi\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.LP
\fBExample 3 \fRCombining pairs of lines from a file into single lines
.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBpaste -s -d"\e t\e n" file\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.sp
.LP
See \fBenviron\fR(7) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of \fBpaste\fR: \fBLANG\fR, \fBLC_ALL\fR,
\fBLC_CTYPE\fR, \fBLC_MESSAGES\fR, and \fBNLSPATH\fR.
.SH EXIT STATUS
.sp
.LP
The following exit values are returned:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB0\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 7n
Successful completion.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB>0\fR \fR
.ad
.RS 7n
An error occurred.
.RE

.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
CSI	Enabled
_
Interface Stability	Standard
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
.BR cut (1),
.BR grep (1),
.BR pr (1),
.BR attributes (7),
.BR environ (7),
.BR largefile (7),
.BR standards (7)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB"line too long"\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 22n
Output lines are restricted to 511 characters.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB"too many files"\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 22n
Except for \fB-s\fR option, no more than 12 input files may be specified.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB"no delimiters"\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 22n
The \fB-d\fR option was specified with an empty list.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB"cannot open \fR\fBfile\fR\fB"\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 22n
The specified file cannot be opened.
.RE