xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/lam/lam.1 (revision 38f0b757fd84d17d0fc24739a7cda160c4516d81)
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28.\"	@(#)lam.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd August 12, 2004
32.Dt LAM 1
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm lam
36.Nd laminate files
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Nm
39.Op Fl f Ar min . Ns Ar max
40.Op Fl s Ar sepstring
41.Op Fl t Ar c
42.Ar
43.Nm
44.Op Fl p Ar min . Ns Ar max
45.Op Fl s Ar sepstring
46.Op Fl t Ar c
47.Ar
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Nm
51utility copies the named files side by side onto the standard output.
52The
53.Em n-th
54input lines from the input
55.Ar files
56are considered fragments of the single long
57.Em n-th
58output line into which they are assembled.
59The name `\fB\-\fP' means the standard input, and may be repeated.
60.Pp
61Normally, each option affects only the
62.Ar file
63after it.
64If the option letter is capitalized it affects all subsequent files
65until it appears again uncapitalized.
66The options are described below:
67.Bl -tag -width indent
68.It Fl f Ar min . Ns Ar max
69Print line fragments according to the format string
70.Ar min . Ns Ar max ,
71where
72.Ar min
73is the minimum field width and
74.Ar max
75the maximum field width.
76If
77.Ar min
78begins with a zero, zeros will be added to make up the field width,
79and if it begins with a `\-', the fragment will be left-adjusted
80within the field.
81.It Fl p Ar min . Ns Ar max
82Like
83.Fl f ,
84but pad this file's field when end-of-file is reached
85and other files are still active.
86.It Fl s Ar sepstring
87Print
88.Ar sepstring
89before printing line fragments from the next file.
90This option may appear after the last file.
91.It Fl t Ar c
92The input line terminator is
93.Ar c
94instead of a newline.
95The newline normally appended to each output line is omitted.
96.El
97.Pp
98To print files simultaneously for easy viewing use
99.Xr pr 1 .
100.Sh EXAMPLES
101The command
102.Bd -literal
103lam file1 file2 file3 file4
104.Ed
105.Pp
106joins 4 files together along each line.
107To merge the lines from four different files use
108.Bd -literal
109lam file1 \-S "\\
110" file2 file3 file4
111.Ed
112.Pp
113Every 2 lines of a file may be joined on one line with
114.Bd -literal
115lam \- \- < file
116.Ed
117.Pp
118and a form letter with substitutions keyed by `@' can be done with
119.Bd -literal
120lam \-t @ letter changes
121.Ed
122.Sh SEE ALSO
123.Xr join 1 ,
124.Xr paste 1 ,
125.Xr pr 1 ,
126.Xr printf 3
127.Sh STANDARDS
128Some of the functionality of
129.Nm
130is standardized as the
131.Xr paste 1
132utility by
133.St -p1003.2 .
134.Sh HISTORY
135The
136.Nm
137utility first appeared in
138.Bx 4.2 .
139.Sh BUGS
140The
141.Nm
142utility does not recognize multibyte characters.
143